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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Mail Tribune 100: Dec. 24, 1915, continued ... Cave Junction woman killed in head-on crash ... Washington man dies in I-5 crash near Wolf Creek ... Mail Tribune 100: Dec. 24, 1915, continued ... Cave Junction woman killed in head-on crash ... Washington man dies in I-5 crash near Wolf Creek ... OUR VIEW Our View: Sensation and sensibility: a balancing act Comment MailTribune.com Writer Posted Apr. 26, 2015 at 12:01 AM Posted Apr. 26, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Social News It's a dilemma as old as the news business: report on a gruesome murder trial and people will accuse you of sensationalizing the news "just to sell papers," even while the public devours every installment and comes back for more. That was certainly the case with the trial of Susan Monica, the Wimer farmer convicted last week of murdering two men more than a year apart, dismembering them and feeding their remains to her pigs. On the one hand, it was easily the most bizarre murder case in recent Jackson County history, and there was already a great deal of public interest, even though 15 months had elapsed since Monica's arrest. It was a story that could not be ignored, but also a story that offended some readers. The details were indeed horrifying, made even more so by Monica's matter-of-fact accounts of shooting the two victims. Her videotaped confessions to detectives were played for jurors during the trial, and she took the stand to describe her version of the events. What many readers may not know is how much deliberation goes into deciding what to report from a case like this and what not to report. As gruesome as some of the coverage was, there were details that emerged in court that Mail Tribune editors chose not to include. Some readers took us to task for playing the story on the front page every day during the trial. That's not unusual; coverage of high-profile murder trials often brings a backlash from readers who would rather not be confronted with such news over their morning coffee. But at the same time, those stories attract more attention than more everyday coverage does. We in the news business have always known this, and readership surveys have borne it out — after the fact. Now, however, with the Internet's instantaneous sharing of information, we have tools to track reader interest in real time. And those tools confirm that, in the age-old newsroom phrase, this story had legs. Data from the Mail Tribune website show the Monica trial story was No. 1 or No. 2 every day it appeared, and on one day, two separate stories captured both the top spots. Two and three days after the verdict was reached, that story and a followup item about the makeup artist that helped transform the defendant's appearance for trial continued to hold the top three spots. The story of Monica's conviction also was picked up by a national website, which brought nearly 100,000 additional readers to our online story. The accusation of hyping coverage to sell papers had much truth to it back in pre-television days when competing big-city newspapers sought to boost single-copy sales with sensational headlines. Later, with the growth of television news and fewer and fewer cities with more than one paper, home delivery subscriptions were the most important measure of success and were used to determine advertising rates. One high-profile murder trial doesn't have that much impact on subscription numbers. It can, however, drive traffic online, where crime-related stories are often near the top of the list of what's being read. It's our job to inform our readers about the news of their community and also give them the news they want. That means at times we must perform a balancing act because, as evidenced by the Monica story, readers don't always agree on what the definition of that news is. MailTribune.com Writer Posted Apr. 26, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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