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A former colleague of mine, the talented but fashion challenged Tim Fitzgerald, once had the perfect recipe for front page photos. Kids and animals. He called it the McDonald's front page. What cold-hearted newspaper reader doesn't love a nice, bright photo of kids and/or animals to start their day? Dogs have been popular this week, one special beagle in particular. Uno won Best In Show at the Westminister Kennel Club Show in New York this week, the first beagle to ever win the prestigious honour. Uno appeared on the front of both Wednesdays and Thursdays editions. Last Saturday, we published the story about the two blind dogs at the SPCA needing homes. on the top of the front page. Right next to it was the story about the prison mom being allowed to raise her baby with her in jail. Like Tim said -- kids and animals will always be well-read and provoke a response. In the case of both of the above stories, the potential mistreatment of kids and animals hits an exposed nerve every time. So even if the news about the kids and animals in question isn't good, Tim's formula for a successful front page still works. That sounds like a cynical approach to news judgment but the front page, to a certain extent, is a popularity contest. What is the story that the majority of our readers will be attracted to? Will they tell their friends and family all about it? Whether the reader response to a front page story or photo is negative or positive is somewhat irrelevant. The degree of the response is what's important and hopefully they'll keep reading the other content in that day's paper. At the end of the day, the newspaper is still a product for sale. Putting stories and pictures on the front page that will get attention is the marketing side of news. Cue the kids and animals.
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