It goes without saying that the pope is important. He oversees a flock of 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide, and a quarter of Americans are Catholic. The selection of a new pope – one from the new world, no less – was the biggest story worldwide on Wednesday. Pope Francis waved from the front pages of newspapers across the globe.
But here in the Chattanooga region there seemed to be more talk Thursday morning about Cee Lo Green taking the stage at the Riverbend Festival.
That’s the kind of decision newspapers make every day. What’s more important to our readers? What should we put on the front page? What goes above the fold?
Online it’s easier to decide. We rotate stories through the top slots on our website all day. News that breaks at 2 p.m. displaces whatever happened at 1:30 p.m.
But the print edition is different. When we figure out what to put on the front page, we sometimes have to consider what’s interesting versus what’s important. In the newsroom, we refer to some stories as DBIs – reports that are “dull but important.” Those are the stories that in the past always made it into the front page. Why not? They’re important, after all.