Should Wheldon story have been A1 in the NYT?

We discussed the placement of the Steve Jobs obit. What about Wheldon? There is a tease to sports at the bottom of A1, but no separate story.

Should there have been? Did the New York Times drop the ball today? East Coast bias?

 

Only if Hines Ward belongs in the Hall of Fame.

Seriously, no. He wasn't even remotely well known enough to merit such a thing. Big sports story, but the front page of the Times? Come on, man!

 

The reigning Indy 500 champion died in a fiery, horrifying wreck on live television that involved 15 cars. On a slow news day. That's a story that goes beyond the mere name recognition of the driver. If Dan Wheldon dies in a farming accident next November, it shouldn't get that placement. But this time? These circumstances? Absolutely.

 

Wrong.

 

Have to admit, I was curious myself about where some big U.S. papers played this story, so I spent some time at newseum.org.

Indy Star had a 1A story (since Wheldon won Indy 500) and the Las Vegas RJ did, too, of course (since it was a local story). New York Post had it on the cover, but I suspect it was mainly because they could run a big photo of an explosion next to the words "ORGY SPREE" in 200-point type (for a story about Dominique Strauss-Kahn's exploits).

By and large, though, most big papers -- both east coast and west coast -- had nothing more than 1A teases: LA Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Philly Inq, Boston Globe, Denver Post. UK papers (he's from England) didn't appear to have it out front, either, but that's probably more a factor of the time difference.

St. Petersburg Times had a full story on 1A, naturally (he lived in St. Petersburg). Surprisingly, the crosstown rival Tampa Tribune did not (1A tease).

My magazine interviewed him three years ago for an at-home profile. Nice guy. Sad news.

 

We're a 16K daily and we had it on 1B. Like someone said, slow news day.

 

We stripped it across the top of sports. I wasn't on duty, but left one specific instruction: No driver's ed-like photos.

 

The networks led with the story on Monday night.

 

It's on par with women's golf at almost every paper except one. The 500 is special. The series is not. This is a different discussion if it's Danica or Helio, the only two names non-IndyCar fans might know.

Changing gears for a second...Does the Post have a separate Redskins section or just turn the sports cover over to them?