Charles Apple

Few would argue that the world of news design changed forever with the creation of USA TODAY.

The first issue hit the streets 25 years ago, this coming Friday.

The first edition of USA TODAY, published Sept. 15, 1982.
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I was a junior at Winthrop College, working sports information and covering high school sports for The Charlotte Observer. I don’t recall when the first issues made it to Rock Hill. It took a few weeks, as I remember.

I laughed when I saw the jumble of stuff on the front. I was intrigued by the colorful weather map.

But when I opened the sports section and saw the vast amount of stuff packed in there, I knew newspapers would never be the same. Why wait a week for The Sporting News? USA TODAY will give you more sports minutia than you can possibly read every day.

Anyone who doubted the non-sports news value of USA TODAY only had to wait a couple years to see it demonstrated vividly when the space shuttle Challenger blew up moments after launching in January 1986.

Oh, the coverage USA TODAY had of Challenger. The color graphics were stunning. Powerful. Fascinating.

Clearly, these guys were onto something.

What better way to celebrate USA TODAY’s silver anniversary than with one of “these guys,” Richard Curtis, the paper’s Managing Editor for Graphics and Photo. Richard graciously answered a few questions for us…

Q. A quarter-century ago, USA TODAY seemed like an awfully strange experiment. Are you surprised it’s become such a cultural icon?

A. At the time, and quite frankly ever since, we haven’t thought of it as a
cultural icon. To us, it’s just a newspaper, however one that is fairly different in many ways from traditional newspapers.

Richard Curtis
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Q. How did you get involved with USA TODAY? Were you involved at the prototype stage?

A. The first two prototypes were produced in 1981 by a temporary staff of Gannett editors, reporters, artists, etc., who were gathered in Washington, D.C. They were under the direction of Ron Martin, who had been editor at The (Baltimore) News American, where I was employed. Martin had left The News American in early 1981 to head up what would become USA TODAY.

During this prototype period, I did some consulting work with them through my association with Ron. My work with them was very much on the sly.

I interviewed with Martin and John Quinn in the fall of 1981 with the understanding that USAT was not necessarily a go at that point. The future depended on (a) the outcome of market research and consumer testing, which was ongoing using those first two prototypes; and (b) a vote scheduled for — I think — December 1981 of the Gannett board of directors.

Luckily, the vote was affirmative to proceed and my first day on the USAT job was Jan. 25, 1982, when 12 planning editors gathered in Rosslyn, Va. to produce what eventually would become The Nation’s Newspaper.

Sept. 14, 1982: Launch night for USA TODAY. Left to right: Mitch Koppelman, Director of Photography; Richard Curtis, Managing Editor/Graphics and Photography; John Quinn, Executive Vice President (”He later became editor of the paper,” Richard says); and Jackie Greene, Assistant Director of Photography. The team is looking over a color key of the front page of the first issue.
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From that point until the first issue on Sept. 15, 1982, the news staff grew to something short of 200. During this time, we literally built a newsroom and production facility, hired staff, and produced another dozen prototypes, all of which were printed and subjected to more testing.

Did I mention that despite 18-hour days, seven days a week that it was the most exciting time of my professional life?

Q. Infographics existed before USA TODAY, of course. But USA TODAY
certainly advanced the form to the level it enjoys today. How difficult
was it, in the early days, to find ways to tell stories graphically? Were you aware you were exploring new territory?

A. My memory may be defaulting to remembering only the good things, but in those early days — and for quite some time afterwards — finding ways to tell stories graphically at USAT was like shooting fish in a barrel. The appetite by Neuharth and other editors was almost insatiable.

This was good and bad at the same time. Good in that the graphics staff got to produce a lot of what they lived to produce. Bad in that we did some graphics that probably shouldn’t have been done.

Q. In the beginning, folks insulted the venture by calling it “McPaper.” Later, USA TODAY seemed to adopt the term - even the paper’s official biography is called “The Making of McPaper.” Seems like folks there have usually taken the negative comments in stride. Does it get old after a while?

A. Actually, I think we took it as a point of pride especially after we saw, in the words of John Quinn, so many other papers stealing our McNuggets.

Just one example: How many color weather packages were in newspapers prior to 1982, and how many immediately afterwards?

An aside: For many years, we gave out magnets to staffers for doing superlative work. The magnets were called McNuggets.

“‘McPaper’ is being reissued in September with an afterward that brings you up to date over the past 20 years.,” Richard says. That’s it on the left: ‘USA Today: Making of McPaper’ by Peter S. Prichard. Buy it at Amazon for $12.89. Find it here. While you’re at it, check out another new book: ‘25 Years of USA Today: The Stories That Shape Our Nation.’ Available from Amazon for $16.47. Find it here.
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Q. At what point did it become apparent to you that USA TODAY was going to work? Was there a big “aha! moment? Or was it more a gradual epiphany, over time?

A. For me, personally, it was very early one morning during the 1982
prototype period. I had worked my usual 18-20 hours and was sitting in our family room eating dinner at, like, 3 a.m., discussing the paper with my adorable, loving, supportive, understanding-beyond-all-comprehension wife, Jane. I remember telling her through bites of a sandwich that there was just so many positive vibes in the air about USAT that I just knew it was going to be a major hit.

Other newspapers were just so weak in comparison, so vulnerable in so many ways, so entrenched in their ways, and blissfully unaware of how the nation was changing that I thought the sky was the limit for USAT. You could literally page through any other newspaper and sense how asleep at the switch most of them were.

I still believe that 3 million circulation or even more (now it’s something like 2.4 million) is easily attainable with the right investment (admittedly, probably gazillions of dollars).

I have always been surprised — as have others who have worked here — how positively USAT is viewed by newspaper readers as an “enjoyable reading experience.” In my experience, most newspapers have strong negative ratings among even their most loyal readers; we never have had strong negatives.

Another “aha!” moment was during a trip to Colorado. When I drove into the little town of Georgetown, Colo. sometime in the early ’80s and saw a USAT coin rack on the street with that day’s newspapers in it, I thought, “If we can do this, put our papers into a coin rack by 8 a.m. in a small town 50 miles from Denver, especially a paper that people like, there’s no way we can fail.”

Of course, I was to find out later there were, indeed, many ways we could fail, but at least then optimism was incredibly high.

Q. Are there any particular moments of the past 25 years that stand out in your mind?

A. Celebrating 25 years in one job makes you reflective of what those years have meant. For me, it was always about finding talented people and giving them the opportunity to exercise that talent.

The moments that stand out are those involving the many good people who have worked here. Many of those who have worked for me and left have gone on to bigger and better things in their own lives. I’m personally proud of their success and happy to have played even a small role in their lives.

Q. What’s the one thing you would have done differently?

A. Found a way to have spent more time with my children.

Q. What the newspaper industry needs today, perhaps, is another Al
Neuharth. Where can we find the next Al Neuharth?

A. Agreed, but there is only one Allen H. Neuharth.
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A quarter-century ago. Damn, do I feel old.

Thanks, Richard, for sharing your memories with us. Best wishes for another couple centuries.

Want to read more?

Find a timeline of the history of USA TODAY here.

Learn how the paper is produced here.

John K. Hartman, who has published two books on USA TODAY, offers 25 reflections on the paper’s 25 years. Find it here.

Find USA TODAY’s web site here.

Read a blog by USA TODAY’s multimedia department here.

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