The “readers representative” for the Cleveland Plain Dealer (a position like the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s old Readers Advocate) has explained to that paper’s readers why Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s arrest didn’t make its Page One.

Basically, much like the Post-Dispatch, editors there strongly favor local news for the front page and seek stories that readers won’t get from other news sources.

Ted Diadium, Cleveland’s readers rep, does a good job explaining the evolution of editors’ thinking about front-page stories. He recalls the day not too long ago when editors across the country consulted the story lineups of the New York Times and Washington Post and then worried if their own lineups varied too much. “Readers came to expect this homogenized judgment of what constituted a Front Page Story - and to depend on it,” Diadium says.

But Diadium says that thinking has changed:

“It is a rare day that this newspaper’s front page does not have a high concentration - if not 100 percent - of stories that are rooted in Northeast Ohio. Go through any week’s worth of Plain Dealers, and day after day you will find enterprise pieces that are written and presented with Northeast Ohioans in mind - stories that you can’t find anywhere else…..

“So where does that leave Wednesday’s coverage of Gov. Blagojevich? His problems had nothing to do with Northeast Ohio.”

He goes on to say that Cleveland’s editors fumbled the Blagojevich decision. (The Plain Dealer played it on Page A5):

“But a core element in each day’s newspaper is the critical judgment of editors, who can’t blindly follow unbreakable rules for what goes out front and what does not. No matter what the commitment to local news, editors here would not relegate critical stories on the economy, or the national election, or major developments in the Iraq war, to inside pages.”

“The Blagojevich story didn’t match those in national significance, but the ‘Great Caesar’s Ghost!’ factor was off the charts.”

For the Post-Dispatch, the decision to play the story on our Page One was easy — a no-brainer. The allegations against Blagojevich are sensational. (And it didn’t hurt that the story is local.)