Every square is a rectangle, but not every rectangle is a square. It is a sentence written on every classroom blackboard as a first step to a logic curriculum. It sounds simple enough, right? What does this have to do with editing on Topix?

It is about relevancy. This is a crucial point for the bigger news pages, as well as the smaller, local pages.

For the top news pages, like US News or World News, it is important to be able to step back and consider the big picture when editing. There is a virtual ton of content available in the Topix wire and elsewhere for those pages, but that presents as much of a challenge as a trickling wire does for smaller pages. The task at hand with a wire overflowing with potential stories, is developing a keen eye for plucking the stories from the wire that are the best choices for the page.

Certainly all news that happens in the US does not qualify as US News. I mean, I just had an awesome ham and swiss sandwich for lunch here at Topix Headquarters in Palo Alto, CA, but no one in the next room, much less the next state really cares or needs to know that. That would fall under the rectangle category. What we want here are squares, stories that have national importance and national impact. The results of the New Hampshire primary...that's a square. A change in policy in Iraq....square-city. Congress passes a bill to eliminate income tax...that would be a BIG OL' SQUARE. The key here is to consider the reach of the article. If the news affects life on a national scale, it is US News.

Now, on the other end of the spectrum, we have thriving local communities all over the U.S. With as many news pages as we have, editors have the opportunity to get very niche-y in the pages they choose to edit and the content that they place on those pages. What is sometimes difficult, is keeping those very granular pages very granular. I'll give you an example.

Let's say you are editing the news page for a small town called Palmer, Massachusetts. (Incidentally, I'm picking a random town that has no editor. ) How do you cover the news?

Is a generic article about the war in Iraq relevant? Probably not, but an article highlighting a local angle is certainly on target. Maybe write a short piece about a couple of local Marines like this.

What makes Topix great is the ability to be *truly* local. Smaller towns that are traditionally overlooked by more traditional news media have really found a home here. Our job, as editors for those smaller localities is to bring those people what they can't get anywhere else, local news that matters to them.

Thought for the day - Go for the squares.