For most news outlets, Trump’s conviction was front-page news. What about local chains?

LINK: x.com ➚ | Posted by: Sophie Culpepper | June 3, 2024

On Friday, May 31, front pages around the world blasted the historic news that a former president of the United States and current leading presidential candidate had, for the first time, become a felon.

Not all front pages, though. The Seattle Times’ Jeong Park quickly noticed that several Gannett newspapers (and at least one McClatchy publication) made no mention of Donald Trump’s conviction on page A1 of their print editions.

Some Gannett papers had no Trump story on today’s front pages -> pic.twitter.com/yoL1kZQ2FG

— Jeong Park 박종찬 (@JeongPark52) May 31, 2024

In cities across America, this morning’s newspaper told you there was an election yesterday — but nothing about it

November 7, 2018

News of the conviction broke around 5 p.m. ET on Thursday. For the many local publications that have been forced to outsource print to presses further and further away, and move their print deadlines earlier as a result, the conviction broke too late to run in the following morning’s print edition. This exemplifies the continued diminishment of print that risks making front-page news an anachronism. (Gannett-owned outlets, specifically, were already choosing not to publish election results in the next day’s newspaper back in 2018 to save on print costs.)

The Montgomery Advertiser, one of the Gannett publications that did not publish any news about the conviction on its print front page on May 31, saw its print production plant close just last month and moved print production to Jackson, Mississippi. Similarly, The Indianapolis Star closed its local printing press in April, and the paper is now printed in Peoria, Illinois, a good three hours away across state lines.

“While the verdict came after our daily press roll at 4 p.m. ET, we had immediate coverage online and full-front print coverage on Saturday, along with additional follow-up in Sunday’s edition and beyond,” IndyStar executive editor Eric Larsen told me in an email on Monday.

Gannett will stop using AP content next week

March 19, 2024

Gannett and McClatchy both ended their relationship with the Associated Press for syndicating wire stories earlier this year, in March. But Larsen told me that change hasn’t affected IndyStar’s coverage, and did not affect its ability to publish news about Trump’s conviction.

“From my perspective, the presence of AP content, or lack thereof, had no impact on our coverage options,” he said. “We had an abundance of authoritative coverage in a variety of formats from the USA TODAY Network and our local staff.”

Even some Gannett publications on the West Coast, where the conviction news broke around 2:30 p.m. local time, did not include the news in Friday’s print edition. One outlet, The Record of Stockton, California, published an out-of-date Reuters wire story on its May 31 front page leading with “If the jury deliberating in Donald Trump’s criminal trial makes the historic decision to convict him…”

The Ventura County Star, one of the West Coast publications that did not publish front-page news about the Trump verdict in its May 31 print edition, did not respond to specific questions about its print process. Instead, a Gannett public relations representative shared a statement to be attributed to a Ventura County Star spokesperson that highlighted the newspaper’s digital coverage.

“The Ventura County Star provides readers breaking news 24/7 at vcstar.com, including news of former President Donald Trump’s conviction, which was posted on our website and social channels shortly after the verdict was announced,” according to the statement. “Coverage continued on the front pages of the June 1, June 2, and June 3 editions.” (The Ventura County Star did have an international news story above the fold, a USA Today story about Israel’s war in Gaza, in its May 31 print edition.)

But Gannett’s local news operations were not a monolith in their handling of next-day print conviction coverage. Several Gannett publications did lead their May 31 print editions with USA Today or wire service Trump coverage, including Arizona Republic, Detroit Free Press, Austin American-Statesman, The Des Moines Register, Clarion Ledger, The Columbus Dispatch, The Oklahoman, and The Tennessean.

And a few publications occupied a middle ground. Both the Statesman Journal in Salem, Oregon, and the Times-Union in Jacksonville, Florida, included a tease or “skybox” announcing the news and directing readers to the eNewspaper and usatoday.com for up-to-date coverage.

Florida Times-Union executive editor Paul Runnestrand noted that in addition to the “skybox” featured in Friday’s paper, a story on Trump’s conviction was published right away on the outlet’s digital front page.

“The news did lead our homepage when it broke late Thursday afternoon, which of course is our priority for breaking news,” he said in an email. “Saturday’s print edition was led by a two-story CP package on the front page following up on the verdict.”

Print deadlines also affected McClatchy outlets’ conviction coverage, according to a statement from spokesperson Julie Pendley. “The verdict happened after the print edition deadline for some, but not all, McClatchy outlets,” she said. “Every site published numerous stories online and in eEditions, which are dynamically updated past print deadlines.”

This post has been updated.

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