DATE: Sunday, August 24, 1997               TAG: 9708220010

SECTION: COMMENTARY              PAGE: J5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: LYNN FEIGENBAUM

                                            LENGTH:   81 lines

REPORT TO READERS EXTRA, EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT...

Earlier this month, The Pilot's front page bannered the plane crash in Guam that killed 225 people. Also over the fold on A1 was, ``Adm. Cole relinquishes command,'' about the admiral under fire for sexual harassment.

Now, maybe the moon was in the seventh house, or Jupiter aligned with Mars. But that day, The Pilot sold more than 20,000 papers in stores, news boxes, etc. - the highest number of weekday, single-copy sales in 2 1/2 months.

There was some pretty formidable competition during that period. Here's a quick look at the top ``banner days'':

1. ``At least 35 survive Guam crash'' (Aug. 6).

2. ``Accident kills 8, closes I-95'' (July 4).

3. ``Cunanan believed dead after siege'' (July 24).

4. ``Probation, fine urged for Eckerd'' (Aug. 7).

5. ``NYC police snuff terrorist plot'' (Aug. 1).

6. ``UPS talking, pickets still walking'' (Aug. 8)

7. ``10 from band camp die in crash'' (July 31), along with a front-page photo of waterspouts in Virginia Beach.

8. ``Its been a wonderful life'' (July 3), about the death of actor Jimmy Stewart.

9. ``Deal sets off political partying'' (July 30), about the tax-cutting, budget-balancing pact, tied with. . . .

10. ``Pulled plug leaves Mir dark'' (July 18).

Last year, it took the threat of a hurricane to sell more than 20,000 newspapers out of boxes and stores. This summer, a plane crash in Guam and a car accident on I-95 were the top two grabbers.

Obviously, you, the readers, are telling us something: Give us basic, old-fashioned news for the top stories of the day.

Managing editor Dennis Hartig has been analyzing single-copy sales to find out what makes readers tick when it comes to story interest. Here's what Hartig ranks as top news contenders:

Any sense of economic insecurity in the area, such as Navy downsizing or the UPS strike.

Decisive developments on Medicare and other pocketbook politics - i.e., the Revco-Eckerd drugstore turmoil.

Unfolding dramas where there is a lot at stake and the outcome is uncertain. Examples: Mir, Pathfinder.

How the military is adapting to the social norms of the `90s - the Kelley Flinn case, with its double-standard aftershocks.

And any kind of weather phenomenon, such as last year's hurricanes and this year's twisters.

On the flip side, sex scandals just don't cut it as a six-column banner. At least, not in Southeastern Virginia. The Paula Jones case, for example, was a dud. Says Hartig: ``People don't want us to overplay sex and politics.''

Why am I telling you all this? Not so you can go out and hawk newspapers but to answer the frequently posed question: How do you pick your front-page stories?

One way is to give people what they want to read, and that's how you voted with your quarters.

MATH UP IN SMOKE. Last week, we got a math lesson from reader Frank Buxton. He questioned a headline on the Aug. 13 front-page story about tobacco donations. It said that ``giving rose 500 percent'' between this year and last. Wrong, said Buxton; going by our figures, it rose less than 400 percent.

Here's his math, based on our own, rounded-out numbers: 1997 donations to Democrats and Republicans totaled $1.9 million while 1996 donations totaled $414,000. Deduct the latter from the former and the difference is $1.5 million. Divide that by $414,000 and you get 462 percent.

The story correctly said that donations were nearly 5 times higher in `97. But that doesnt' translate to 500 percent.

Back to the blackboard. . . .

RE-MAPPING VIRGINIA. And while we're confessing, several other readers caught us ``building'' a new causeway.

On Aug. 12, a story about a truck collision included a locator map. Several readers noticed that one highway led from Tangier Island to the Eastern Shore and another road went westward to the Virginia mainland.

Bartow Bridges set us straight. ``I think your artist mistakes an intermittent ferry run on a little launch between those points with the highway, because I'm pretty sure there's no overland road that the map would seem to indicate.''

And I'm pretty sure he's right. It is a ferry path, not a new waterway road.

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