Was the Obama announcement front-page news?
This item is from Bob Rose, assistant managing editor for presentation and editing:
Yesterday, two members of Congress announced they were setting up exploratory committees for a 2008 presidential run. One, Barack Obama, got front-page coverage. The other, Tom Tancredo, got a one-line mention on page 4. Question: was our coverage fair?
The Obama story was one of the more hotly discussed topics at our afternoon news meeting. To some readers who get the print edition of our paper, placement of stories is a Big Deal.
By placing Obama’s pre-announcement announcement on the front page, were we giving him preferential treatment over other candidates? Were we just playing into the Obama hype? Were we being unfair to other candidates? Legit questions all.
In the end, we went with the Obama story on the front page for three reasons.
⢠He’s a member of the local Congressional delegation. When our delegation’s members are considering a run for the presidency, it’s big news.
⢠Obama’s decision to run or not run could go a long way toward shaping the presidential campaign.
⢠We liked the story better than other alternatives we had for the front
page.
It should be noted that the story was framed as a look at the importance of the exploratory committees as much as it was a story about the Obama campaign.
Even as we put the story on the front page, we’re still left with the question. Is the media’s coverage of Obama driven by the public’s interest in him, or is the public’s interest in Obama driven by media coverage?
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Kurt is the director of social media for the Post-Dispatch, where he has worked since August 2002. He's been a journalist since 1982, covering municipal government, courts, education and two hurricanes as a reporter before becoming an editor. 
Candidates with local or regional ties will (and should) get prominent attention from local and regional media.
In fact, the P-D’s generally sour/hands-off coverage of Dick Gephardt’s second presidential bid was an annoyance — and in sharp contrast to the careful attention paid to John Kerry’s candidacy by the Boston Globe.