Denver news overload pg.14

By: Joe Strupp Colo. newspapers deal with two big stories at once

When word leaked out that Denver Broncos legend John Elway was planning to retire just days after the worst mass shooting in U.S. history stunned a Denver-area high school, editors at local newspapers had to decide how to simultaneously cover what are arguably the state's two biggest stories of the year.
For reporters and newsroom supervisors already trying to report every aspect of the high school shooting in Littleton, Colo., attempting to report adequately on the retirement of the state's most famous athlete added pressure to an already stressful week.
"Our seams are very stretched," says Denver Rocky Mountain News editor John Temple. "The staff has already risen to a very difficult challenge, and they are really doing so much on this. Everyone is tired."
In addition, papers had to continue covering the daily Yugoslavia bombings, keep an eye on the long-running JonBenet Ramsey case, and deliver other state and local news.
During any other week in Colorado, Elway's retirement would have knocked other stories off the front page to clear space for tributes, reaction, and commentary about the Super Bowl champion.
But with readers still grasping for answers to help explain the tragic high school shooting, and information coming in almost hourly about the victims, suspects, and plans for the killings, local newspapers say they had no choice but to put coverage of Elway aside and continue to focus on the shooting.
"It was an easy decision that the shooting takes precedence over anything else," says Dennis A. Britton, editor-in-chief of The Denver Post. "Elway's retirement has not gotten the Page One prominence that it would have."
Both newspapers have put dozens of reporters and photographers on the shooting story, including writers who normally cover features, sports, and business. The Post, owned by MediaNews Group, brought in 10 reporters and photographers from other MediaNews papers in California and Massachusetts to help supplant staff, Britton says.
Each publication also reassigned sports-writers to the shooting after the Rockies, Nuggets, and the Avalanche cancelled two games each out of respect for the victims.
"At least three-fourths of the staff is working on the shooting," says metro editor Frank Scandale, a nine-year Post veteran. "This is the biggest, most-intense story we have ever had."
A review of the first week's coverage of the shooting and Elway stories offers a glimpse at how decisions about news play and balance were made:
On Thursday, April 22, two days after the shooting, the News published a 24-page wrap around the main newspaper that included updates on some victim's identities and suspect information, along with a front-page letter from publisher Larry Strutton asking readers to donate to a memorial fund and offering the newspaper's help with a campaign to build a new high school if students and teachers feel they could not return to Columbine High School.
The same day, the Post devoted its entire 28-page front section to the shooting, with stories ranging from pro-gun legislation being dropped in the state legislature to the first names of victims released.
Friday, April 24 saw both newspapers devote more than 20 pages of coverage to the shooting in the front section, with stories ranging from a cancelled Marilyn Manson concert to a search for accomplices.
After the Elway story broke late Friday, the Saturday, April 24 edition of the Post kept the shooting on Page One, but promoted sports section Elway coverage that included a four-page tribute. The News also chose to lead with the shooting and placed only a front-page headline on Elway that referred to stories in sports.
On Sunday, April 25, the News published a 32-page wrap around the main news section, its largest ever, with a recap of the shooting and photos of each student killed. Post readers found an eight-page wrap of shooting coverage, with a four-page Elway section inside. Monday, April 26 saw the Post publish an exclusive interview with Elway, who continued to delay his formal retirement announcement because of the shooting, postponing it to Sunday, May 3. The News gave 14 pages of shooting coverage on Monday, which included a "scathing editorial" that criticized radio talk show host Howard Stern for comments he made about having sex with the victims before they died.
Both newspapers held off printing large commemorative tributes to Elway, which have been in the planning stages since the end of the Super Bowl when hints of his retirement first arose. Editors say such large, celebratory tributes would not be considered tasteful in light of the shootings.
"There is plenty of time for that," says Post circulation and marketing director Vern Mallinen. "Elway's retirement is not life and death."
News spokeswoman Linda Sease says her newspaper also postponed a large special section celebrating the newspaper's 140th anniversary that had been set to run on April 25. She says it will run May 2. "We didn't think it was right to be celebrating our 140th birthday when some high school kids won't be celebrating their 16th birthday," she says.
For other area dailies, Elway's retirement did not change the face of Page One but did add to the already huge workload and news judgment decisions that smaller papers were experiencing.
"It's been an easy call because we know what the real news is," says Colleen Conant, executive editor of the 34,000-circulation Daily Camera in Boulder, Colo. "I think we would have been heavily criticized if we had done anything differently."
Conant says her 20-member reporting staff, based about 35 miles from Littleton, has rotated coverage of the shooting with at least five reporters working on the story each day.
At The Gazette in Colorado Springs, about 60 miles south of Littleton, the 100,000-circulation paper had to scrap its Saturday front page, which was devoted solely to the high school tragedy, after Elway's announcement, according to managing editor Terri Fleming.
Although the shooting remained the top story, the front page had to be redone to include an Elway item. "We knew Elway was a big story, but not big enough to push Littleton into second place," says Fleming. "It's still sports."
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