Hundreds of stories a day flow from our wire services into The Advertiser and a select group of editors from each department have to figure out what gets into print and what gets ignored.

News Editor David Putnam, who oversees a group of editors who run our copy desk, starts from home every morning scanning TV news and Internet sources trying to figure out what will be fresh by the time he walks into the newsroom in the early afternoon. His job is made harder by the fact that by the next morning, many readers will have already seen or heard about many of these stories.

At his computer, he is scouring the news budgets from The Associated Press, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Gannett News Service and all its newspapers (including USA Today), McClatchy-Tribune News Service and Bloomberg News Service. Wire editor Christie Lee Williams is doing the same, looking through the domestic, international, Washington, political and regional wires. On the domestic wire alone, for example, some 300 files may move within an eight-hour period and she's responsible for knowing what's out there.

"So by now I have a couple hundred short descriptions of stories from wire services and dozens of newspapers from Des Moines to Tokyo bouncing around in my head," Putnam said. "I've got to whittle that pile down to a bucketful, then to a handful by 2:30 p.m. when I meet with Christie. Christie has also gone through the wire services and describes her Page One-worthy picks."

Williams has a keen eye for interesting stories and she knows what to select and what probably won't appeal to our readership.

"We look for stories that would affect the major facets of our readers' lives, such as their families, finances and health," she said. "We also keep in mind The Advertiser's mission statement, which includes honoring Hawai'i's diversity and cherishing our environment. There's also a strong focus on the Asia and Pacific region because of cultural influences and, of course, location."

After conferring on what they like, Putnam comes into our 3 p.m. news meeting with four to six choices of what to place on Page One. But he is competing with the city, business, sports and Island Life sections, which also have offerings. The Advertiser is big on local news, knowing that much of what is on the wires can be culled from many sources but Hawai'i news comes from far fewer outlets.

Putnam and the other editors are looking for a balance — a "nice mix" as we call it — so that the most intriguing lineup appears on the front page.

As the 3 p.m. meeting begins, Putnam presents the selections from the wire budget:

"In no particular order, the final cut might include the latest from the presidential campaigns, an article on the current status of the war in Iraq or Afghanistan, an economic issue (i.e., gas prices, home mortgages), lifestyle trends (did you wait in line to get your new iPod?), a health-related issue (such as new medicines or new studies making new findings) or an education-related story (how are Hawai'i schools comparing nationally?)," he said.

But he's also on the hunt for environmental issues, such as global warming, protecting coral, clean air, clean water or news involving tourism, such as the high cost of air travel.

A while back, Williams picked up a story out of Philadelphia, "Humpback whale flippers may hold key to better wind turbines." The story appealed to her because she knew it would resonate with local readers. The humpback was once Hawai'i's state mammal and a proposed Lana'i wind farm was the subject of a Page One story earlier in the month. Even when a story doesn't seem local, we try to find something that will have local appeal.

At the end of the day, however, local news trumps almost everything else.

"Local news is what The Advertiser strives to do better than anyone else in Hawai'i, so sometimes only one wire story breaks into the Page One lineup," Putnam said. "Occasionally two wire stories are chosen for Page One but in my more than three years here I've never seen three wire stories make the front page — local news coverage here simply is that strong."

Not everyone agrees with this approach and we get calls asking why we didn't put this story or that on Page One, but we think The Advertiser provides a nice mix more often than not.

Mark Platte is senior vice president/editor of The Advertiser. Reach him at mplatte@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8080. Or post your comments at www.honoluluadvertiser.com.