Well, I am still acting web admin, even though I haven't been appointed for 2010 yet...
In short, I've preferred to use locations for news where there is room for a body of text, where multiple headlines can be viewed, where past stories are archived, and where users can subscribe to a feed. The front page fits all of these, and sub-forums fit all but the last (and may fit the last also--I don't remember offhand what the RSS capabilities of the forum are, but it may possibly support subscribing to a forum section).
Basically, if you are monitoring the front page or forums, you'll be alerted if there's a new post (by RSS for the front page, or by the "new" highlight in the forum)--but the "News" ticker doesn't provide these features. Maybe we can put headlines there as a duplicate, though.