This study aimed to analyze and identify the most frequent news category and rhetoric of the

three local English dailies as well as assess whether they align to the readers’ news preference.
These factors served as the sources of the data gathered by the researchers: ninety tertiary
students, each local publication’s respective editorial board, and banner stories. Findings indicated
that even though the editors would usually select their stories based on impact, the

banner story content however focused more on news like crime and politics which are mostly
conflict-based issues, instead of human interest stories that readers prefer the most. In
conclusion, the respective editorial boards of each publication are not presenting the readers with
their main interests in the banner story.

Keywords: banner stories, news values, news categories, gatekeeping/gatekeepers, and readers’
preference