Anna Nicole BELOW THE FOLD in hometown paper

Simple: Anna Nicole lived her life so others wouldn't have to.

 

OK, so they missed the boat on the Anna Nicole stuff. But under the "Variety" section, they have a great advice column about a guy whose wife can't keep her clothes on.

http://www.mexiadailynews.com/variety/local_story_039143102.html?keyword=topstory

 

Hey, I put that a link to that Dear Abby/Annie's Mailbox column on the front of our Web site and it produced. Anytime you have a headline that includes the words "exhibitionist" and "nudist", it's going to drive Web traffic.

I'm not going to take a gratuitous jab at your seven-post status, but a newbie needs to know that's a cheap rip of a small-town paper. Coulda been a first story by a high school stringer. The writer will probably never see your rip, but doesn't deserve it. Boo to you.

 

My conclusion is you're a dick. It wasn't after your initial post; it is now.

 

Celebrating a life is in no way, shape or form a barometer for news-worthiness.

Were people talking about it non-stop the next day? That's a barometer for news-worthiness.

 

Must be a syndicated column, though. Letter's from Bradenton, Fla.

F_B, I hate myself for saying this, but in the world we live in, who this person was -- OK, I'll grant you that she's a famous nobody, but still famous -- and the circumstances of her death put her on 1A in a lot of places.

Like it or not, a lot of people were talking about this yesterday. Hard to ignore it with a brief on B13.

 

This resembles the debate over LeBron James' statements on John Amaechi.

Just because you don't like the answer -- re: this story belongs on A1 -- doesn't mean you can dismiss it. There's too much evidence that people want to read about it.

A more valid question to me is, where do you play it on A1? Because I'd say you downplay it there, a rail down the side or a feature-type hole on the lower right of the page. (And yes, DyePackian scholars, that does matter.)

 

A guy could really settle in below Anna's folds.

Sigh.

 

B -- Hell! D -- section at least, if not Double D or E...

 

News is news. Should have been above the fold. If it's a crappy CNHI paper, then I understand why it's at the bottom. Not shocked. ... gotta have that local, baby. ...

 

I say bullshit. News is not news just because a celebrity-addicted national media says it is. Anne Nicole Smith being the top story in any paper perhaps aside from L.A., N.Y. or her hometown is fucked up and a signal in the decline of our news judgment vis a vis letting the celebrity tail wag the dog.

Bottom of the page at best, she was a vapid waste of space.

 

And again ... you've let down your readers' expectations if you act on your particular yardstick of what's important here.

You don't get to eliminate a celebrity-addicted populace by stamping your foot and saying it's not so.