How to play it?
When the bridge collapsed in Minnesota, my paper played it up, front page up top with lots o' photos, and online video from AP. The next day we dedicated an entire section front to the bridge collapse, search for survivors, implications for bridges across the country, and a local piece on bridges near our humble port town.
A new editor who works here was visiting another state and said the major paper there buried the bridge collapse at the bottom of its front page, with no art, and not even a jump for more information inside the newspaper. I don't know what their follow-up was, but I'd like to think they realized the mistake and played it up the next day.
Then again, many people get big national news from TV/radio/Internet before they head to a newspaper.
When something big happens, who decides where the event goes in your publication/broadcast?
Where did you put the bridge collapse?