Most important beat at a newspaper

Depends on the editor or ME running the show. If he or she used to cover city hall, it's city hall. If he or she was the Washington correspondent or the cops reporter, it's that.
Everything's political.
Count on it.

 

City Hall. It affects everyone in some way. Endless supply of stories. Always the chance to uncover something scummy or corrupt.

I have two kids and care about their schooling, but I'd rather have battery acid poured in my eyes than read a week's worth of education stories.

 

What if your editor was a desker? Then the most important beat would be...

 

What if your editor wasn't even in the business before becoming editor?

 

Local Kiwanis Club meeting beat. Definitely. Discuss.

 

Do any papers have that as a beat? That would probably fall under a "community" beat, which could be considered most important.

 

That'd be one of the leftover stories I send student writers.

 

I don't think it's easily defined, but I'd agree that it varies by location, and probably varies from day to day. Which would lead me to the "whichever one draws the most readers." As unseemly as we think that is, if that means it's the Brittney Spears beat, then that's what it means.

 

Asked a few people I know who work at both city newspapers and they said government/city hall. Education comes after crime.

 

It's an interesting discussion because I'm sure that there's a generally understood hierarchy in news just as there is in sports, i.e. preps ---> colleges ---> pros ---> columns/enterprise