sports vs. a1

Is one section of the paper better than another section? Essentially, that is what this post comes down to. And when it comes down to making these decisions on a tight deadline, things always get a little dicey.

While technically the picture selection should come down to the picture editor, I believe it is important to work with each individual section so that we can do our best to make everyone happy. Sometimes this works, and other times it doesn't.

In this case it didn't. A1 wanted to run the same picture 2 columns that sports wanted to run on their cover 6 columns. The A1 editor's biggest claim was that more people would see it and that essentially that section was more important. My argument was that I don't think our best story-telling photo should run 2 columns when it could run 6 on the sports cover. Granted, I also had the photographer and the sports editors on my side as well.

So, after a struggle, we were able to get A1 a picture they were somewhat happy with and the much fought over photograph ran on the cover of sports.

These situations are always tough and I don't think anyone "wins." In the end, I think it is important to have good pictures tell the story-and sometimes the best picture ends up on A1 and sometimes it ends up somewhere else. The important thing is to keep up the communication and respect what each section is trying to accomplish.

Anyways---here are some of the other pages from the playoff game in Green Bay. Note on the page below, the two column sports picture that is in apparently a top, important, highly claimed spot on A1.