So how did The Washington Post end up playing the Bush trip to Vietnam and the gay marriage proposal in South Africa in Wednesday's paper.

Both stories ended up inside the A-section. The Bush story ran on page A12; the South Africa story on page A15.

You'll recall from yesterday's blog post that print editors thought the Vietnam story was more timely and relevant than the gay marriage story and ought to get better play on washingtonpost.com. During a noon meeting Tuesday, there was some feeling that the paper would end up giving the Vietnam story pretty good visibility in today's paper.

So what happened?

News.

A1 of today's Washington Post carries the following stories: Sen. Reid pledging to press Bush on an Iraq policy; the kidnapping of dozens in Iraq; Christian groups condemning gay sex; approval of a D.C. stadium parking plan; a story about amateur videos out of Malaysia, and the main centerpiece - a feature about a lame-duck Texas lawmaker who will serve less than a month in Congress due to a technicality.

If you're counting, that's 6 stories on the front of The Washington Post, plus 3 photos, and an index box.

As a matter of comparison (for what it's worth), The Spokesman-Review usually runs 4 or 5 stories on A1 plus an index rail down the left side.