Editor of small Ohio paper explains his ‘Christmas card’ front
Last week, we discussed the use of poster fronts on Christmas Day — or, in this case, perhaps, they should be called Christmas card fronts.
Tom Graser, managing editor of the Marion Star — a tiny Gannett p.m. paper in central Ohio — wrote about this very thing in his Sunday column. Basically, that single-copy sales are dead on holidays:
On big holidays, like Christmas, most stores are closed and people don’t leave their homes. Reading a newspaper is a solitary act and holidays are about spending time with people.
…Last year, as Christmas approached, I began thinking about single copy sales. I knew they would be dismal. Since we can’t manufacture news to overcome the impact of the holiday on sales, we decided to take advantage of the situation and publish a large Christmas card to our readers on the front page.
So for last year’s holiday paper, Tom used a big Christmas parade photo with a “Merry Christmas” header and a fat cutline.
This year, he wanted something a little more elaborate. So he had an advertising artist build…
…something that looked more like a Christmas card and less like a news photo with some writing on it.
The design came out great (thanks, Steve), but we were still faced with a tough decision. The ice storm Tuesday night and Wednesday morning resulted in two fatal car accidents.
And that’s where Tom ran into his dilemma. Should he dump the Christmas presentation and lead with the car crashes? Or should he run the Christmas card as planned, push the crashes inside and refer to them?
Tom chose the latter:
The above-the-fold design was by Steve Jordan. Photo editor Bill Sinden shot the picture.
On most days, these accidents would have been on the front, but this day, I decided, we wouldn’t do that. We announced the accidents in the skybox on the very top of our front page, stuck with our Christmas card design and ran the stories on page three.
My heart goes out to the families who lost loved ones on Christmas Eve. Where their stories ran in the newspaper changed nothing for them.
We reported the news. And, we wished you all a merry Christmas. And for one day, at least, sales were not important.
Did Tom make the right call on Christmas Day?
As much as we applaud the Christmas card approaches we posted last week, we’re not so sure about this one. Normally, we would have argued to put the breaking news out front. Poster fronts and page one holiday tributes are fun and all, but we try to stress they’re only to be used when there is no news to report.
Tom Grasier, managing editor
of the Marion Star
—
But Tom makes a great case. Especially since the Star is an afternoon paper, with an average daily circulation of right around 14,000. His paper wouldn’t hit the streets until well after lunchtime. How many convenience-store or newspaper-rack sales is he really going to make on Christmas Day?
We asked Tom what kind of reaction he’s received. He responds:
I have not had any reaction to the front. Of course, I have not heard from the circulation people yet.
…I think I may have been influenced by a call from a reader several years ago who congratulated us on an all “good news” front on Christmas. It was entirely unintentional, but it got me thinking.
I did get one call this year from an occasional reader who read the column. His complaint was that we moved the paper box he likes to purchase his newspaper from.