What’s Front Page News? Readers Help Decide
This from an AP story:
MADISON, Wis. – Wisconsin’s second-largest newspaper is letting readers help decide what to put on its front page in an experiment designed to boost interest in the paper.
The Wisconsin State Journal is posting a poll on its Web site allowing readers every weekday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. to pick their favorite out of five story ideas. Barring late-breaking news, the story typically will appear on the front page the next day.
It added that:
Brent Cunningham, managing editor of the Columbia Journalism Review, said the effort is an echo of the so-called public journalism of the 1990s in which newspapers increasingly reached out to readers to help set their agendas.
Of course, a public journalism connection makes sense; the editor is Ellen Foley, a long-time public journalism advocate.
