Most important beat at a newspaper

Crud, I forgot to make that whole post blue.

 

If I don't have a beat (including GA), than I don't have a job. So i'm making my beat the most important to me.

 

Porno copy writer? Oh, wait the thread is newspaper, not magazine.

 

OK. Given. BUT let's try to have a little fun here, teacher's pet.

 

Besides my beat, I think it depends on your town / coverage area and what's important to them. As others have said if you live in a state capital, politics are important, if you live in a college town, higher education is important. Likewise, if there is a military base in your town, or some big factories, those beats are probably most important. For example, I bet most of the biggest beats at papers in Michigan are automotive writers because of the amount of car companies and factories in the state.

 

Rec soccer.

 

Judging from the angry emails and voicemails I get, clearly its JV basketball.

 

It's whatever gets the most Web hits. [pinheadmanagingeditor/]

 

So, at papers big enough to have them, where do enterprise/investigative beats fall? Obviously, they're among the most prestigious and desirable (at least to many of us). But what's more "important" - occasional high-end stuff, or day-in, day-out coverage of the schools or city hall or Big U's football team?

 

If reader interest was really the barometer, it's be obits

 

WNBA.

 

An ME once told me that he had more requests to cut the sports section for multiple pages of comics.