newsminer.com

With the election behind us, and with some sleep finally recorded, there’s time to take note of something regarding the News-Miner’s presentation of the results.

We knew from the outset that this election was going to cause us a problem on the front page. The presidential race was going to have a historic result — the first African-American to be president or the first woman to become vice president. Either of those extraordinary results would warrant extraordinary play on the front page. Either of those would chew up a lot of space on the cover.

But there was also the matter of Sen. Ted Stevens. Would his 40-year Senate career come to an end as a result of his recent felony convictions? If so, that’s an earthquake-type story for Alaska. Or would Alaskans send him back to the Senate for another term, essentially sticking it to the prosecutors and the jurors? That, too, would rate as a major story.

Complicating things even more was the (supposedly) serious Democratic threat to Rep. Don Young, who has been in the U.S. House since 1973.

Would Alaska lose its two longest-serving members of Congress? And on a night where the first African-American could become president or the first woman could become vice president?

It’s a newsperson’s dream night.

But it can also be a page designer’s nightmare. Try to stick it all on one page and nothing looks right, nothing gets the attention it deserves. Everything has a stuffed, uncomfortable look.

So our copy desk, led by chief copy editor Gary Black, designed what amounts to two front pages. The Obama victory went on A1, with all the prominence that the story deserved, and the story of the Stevens race was delivered to readers with only a headline on A1 — what we call a “reefer headline” — to steer readers to the story (and a just-about-equally large photo) on page B1.

It worked. Two front pages for the price of one. Two stories given the near-equal prominence they deserve on an exceptional news night.

Just a little insight to the election-night doings down here.

If you’ve got any questions about our coverage of the results, send them in.