The Danger of Winter
Summary: A Chaska resident was found, nearly frozen, Saturday. He dies at the Hennepin County Medical Center later that day. His core body temp was only 77 degrees. A snowplow driver found him lying on the sidewalk.
The Pioneer Press article feels like it is missing some pieces. The parents of the 19-year-old man are made to look incompetent in their clueless-ness of not caring why their son isn't home at 3 p.m. the day after the party he'd attended.
The lead, while giving all the important info, does nothing to draw the reader into reading the rest. They could read the lead and know everything they need to know. The author also awkwardly puts a call for anyone with information to step forward, including the phone number, right in the middle of the article. It would have been much more fitting, and it would've helped the flow of the article to have had the statement at the end.
The Star Tribune article, on the other hand, offered a lot of information that the Pioneer Press story left out.
The parents weren't worried because they thought their son was staying at friends. The man was only wearing pants and a shirt when he was found. Also, while you could suspect alcohol was involved while reading the Pioneer Press story, the Star Tribune states that blood-alcohol tests are being done.
Even the Star Tribune's lead:
"Bob Humphrey was disturbed when his 18-year-old son didn't come home Friday night during a winter storm warning, but figured he was staying with friends."
Captures your attention and interests you into reading to find out what happened.
The story structure and level of in depth reporting done on the Star Tribune's article was of much higher quality than
the Pioneer Press' article. While I felt I was being given only some of the facts while reading the Pioneer Press story, I felt confident in the Star Tribune's story.