This morning I came into this newsroom and got one call regarding our coverage - or lack thereof - of the tragedy at Northern Illinois University. I have also gotten one letter about the issue, so I thought I would address it here, because several readers might have been scratching their heads about why that wasn't front-page news.
They're right - it was.
I first saw the story on The Associated Press wire early in the evening, and at that point, no one had been reported dead. And as we like to keep our local content on the front page whenever possible, we budgeted the NIU story for later in the paper.
However, I came to find out later in the evening that five had been killed. We hurried to update the story, but at that point we probably should have thought to put it on the front page. It is a very important and tragic story and should not have been buried.
We are, however, running a story localizing campus security concerns in Monday's paper, and I'm guessing that will be Page 1.
I appreciate the concerns about our story placement, and I hope this answered some of those. But if you have questions, please e-mail me at csmith@alligator.org.
