Daniel Scarpinato Editor In Chief

An editorial decision was made Sunday evening not to run the Columbia tragedy on the front page of Monday's Arizona Daily Wildcat, and I'd like to take readers inside that decision.

We got some heat for running a photo from the "Girls Gone Wild" tour front page, and although I stand by the decision to cover the Columbia explosion like we did, it deserves some explanation.

First of all, there was never a discussion over which was more important ÷ "Girls Gone Wild" or Columbia. Hands down it was Columbia.

That's why we gave the tragedy more space in Monday's paper than any other single news event (page 6).

Still, the question remains for many ÷ why would the Wildcat not run the tragedy front-page?

Most papers have a philosophy of what news is, which is based on its readership demographics and concept of news.

At the Wildcat, we pride ourselves on our coverage of campus news, and are constantly working to make the paper more local and relevant to the community.

Although the Arizona Daily Star and the Tucson Citizen have been more aggressive than ever in their coverage of the UA, the Wildcat is the only independent campus paper around. That's something we're proud of.

Therefore, we have a responsibilty to campus news.

The "Girls Gone Wild" photo certainly did not fit into the category of pressing campus news, but it did seek to balance the tone of the front page and providing a variety of news.

Ideally, we should have been more aggressive in localizing the tragedy and finding student and community reaction.

The Wildcat did, however, make a conscious effort to cover the Columbia incident. Our dominant front-page skybox (the teasers above Arizona Daily Wildcat) advertised our full page spread on the explosion, which included pictures, graphics and three stories.

In fact, it's probably important to note that the Wildcat has actually given more space to national and international news this semester than ever before.

By moving our Nation & World section from page three to the middle of the paper, we have increased our coverage from one or less pages a day to one and a half most days and two when space allows.

In our pursuit to be local, we'll make sure to keep our eye on the bigger picture and cover news outside of our campus borders.

Daniel Scarpinato is a journalism and political science senior and editor in chief of the Wildcat. He can be reached at editor@wildcat.arizona.edu.