Wall Street dominates front page and biz section

Chris Dinsmore, the business editor of the Virginian-Pilot, notes Tuesday that the paper devoted most of its front page and the front of its business section to the Wall Street issues.

Dinsmore writes, “We at the Pilot decided to devote much our front page and the Business section to the turmoil. We wanted to run an overview piece on the Front that highlighted the market’s reaction and offer readers a Q&A that answered some key questions readers might have about how it might affect them and what, if anything, they should be worried about. Given gas shortages and spiking prices as a result of Hurricane Ike, the biz staff also turned a story on what was happening locally as a result of disruptions in Gulf Coast refining operations.

“On the Business section, we decided to go with the day’s harder news with stories about BofA’s takeover of Merrill Lynch and Lehman’s bankruptcy. We also offered a timeline of the credit crunch to provide some context. Due to a profoundly small news hole (thanks to a deep ad stack inside), we had to brief items on AIG and the Federal Reserve. We also used quotes from President Bush and Treasury Secretary Paulson as a double-edit. That left space for one local story and an almost entirely local brief package.”

The results are stunning: