Charles Apple

We reported that the Morning Call of Allentown, Pa., redesigned Monday. Today, we finally have one image to show you:

That’s Sunday’s front on the left; Tuesday’s page on the right.

At first glance, the changes appear to be minimal. The new one is a bit more colorful, with lots of type reversed out of solid color boxes. I hope their presses are good.

The new typefaces appear to be a bit more elegant than the old ones. As Craig Larimer, AME for visuals, told us Monday:

Typography has not changed … much. Using Poynter OS Display, Agenda family (Bd Cond.) for headlines, Quiosco for body copy.

For a larger look, slap the thumbnail:

We’re still trying to get ahold of some inside pages and section fronts. If you have any to share, please do.

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Casualties of recent layoffs at the Orlando Sentinel included two visual journalists: Ellen Lynch and Autumn Heep.

The two had a combined history of less than seven months with the Sentinel. Autumn tells me, in fact:

I’ve only been here 10 weeks. I *just* got my Florida license plates.

Sigh…

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ELLEN

Ellen and Sara Stewart of the Arizona
Daily Star at SND/Orlando, 2006.
Photo by Matt Erickson.
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A graduate of Marquette University, Ellen spent two years with the Albuquerque Journal, designing features and zoned editions. In 2005, she moved to The State in Columbia, S.C., designing Metro, Biz and A1. She started work at the Sentinel January 30.

A few samples of her work:

See more in her NewsPageDesigner gallery.

Ellen happened to be back in Milwaukee this weekend for a college reunion. She took the opportunity to make use of the facilities at her alma mater. She writes:

I’m feeling much better about my options after having a long talk with the MU Career Service counselor. It makes it seem a lot less scary then it was a few days ago.

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AUTUMN

A 2004 graduate of Syracuse University, Autumn worked a summer internship at the Post-Standard and then stuck around to work there full-time. She began work at the Sentinel May 19.

A few samples of her work:

See more in her NewsPageDesigner gallery. Find Autumn’s personal online portfolio here.

I can’t get over how chipper Autumn sounded in her e-mail response to me Monday:

Even though it’s awful news and it’s not a nice feeling to not have a job, I think it’ll be OK. My boyfriend lives in Australia, I can move there for a while. I can give to political campaigns now. And other things journalists “shouldn’t” do.

Feel free to mention me on the blog. Any job offers in Brisbane, Australia would be especially appreciated.

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If you have positions to fill, dear reader, please think of Ellen and Autumn.

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Today — Monday, July 28 — is reportedly the debut of the next Tribune-company redesign, The Morning Call of Allentown, Pa.

Unfortunately, Allentown was a no-show in the Newseum today. We also didn’t see a lot about the redesign posted at the Morning Call web site. Assistant managing editor for visuals Craig Larimer did tell us about the typography, however:

Typography has not changed … much. Using Poynter OS Display, Agenda family (Bd Cond.) for headlines, Quiosco for body copy.

Hopefully, we can get our hands on pages soon. We’ll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, next up is the long-awaited redesign of the Sacramento Bee. That one debuts Tuesday.

Editor Melanie Sill — with whom I worked in Raleigh, about a million years ago — has been previewing the redesign in columns over the past several weeks. The Q&A she published Sunday, in fact, addresses — among other things — the Bee’s new fonts:

Our new body type is called Miller Daily; headline faces are Miller Headline (for the light face) and Benton Sans (for bold headlines). Our small type (sports stats, stocks, weather and so forth) is Poynter Agate Zero. All of these faces won high marks for read-ability from both designers and readers (who weighed in via the Bee’s Press Club).

Find all of Melanie’s musings about the Bee redesign here. We’ll try to have more about Sacramento later later.

And finally, the Los Angeles Times announced big changes over the weekend.  I’m told, however, that this is merely a change in section lineup. The redesign to that paper still does not have a launch date.

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Editor & Publisher reports a most unusual correction in the Sunday New York Times book section.

The correction:

An illustration with the Up Front column last Sunday was published in error. The Howard Hampton it depicts is the leader of the New Democratic Party of Ontario, not the reviewer with the same name who was profiled in the column.

The correction was accompanied by a fresh illo:

Art by Joe Ciardiello

Very amusing. If you’re not the one who made the error, that is.

Find the correction here. Find the original July 20 review — with “correction appended” — here. Find a brief bio of Howard Hampton, the NYT reviewer here. Find the E&P brief here.

They don’t have this one posted yet, but if you love finding humor in the misery of others, then you’ll love the Regret the Error web site. Check it out.

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 A very cool page today by the Savannah Morning News.

The story is about the big explosion of a sugar refinery near Savannah, nearly six months ago. Tragedy was caused by combustion of sugar dust.

Didn’t know sugar dust even existed, did you? Now you do.

Savannah could have used file art from the disaster. But they’ve given all those photos a pretty good ride over the past few months. They needed a way to tell the story in a different and compelling way.

The Morning News‘ Jennifer Sturm writes:

The centerpiece is about the Imperial Sugar plant explosion and OSHA’s findings/finings that they issued yesterday. My boss thought of the powdered sugar idea. Friday night, they did all kinds of photos of the powdered sugar trying to get the right color and shape.

Very interesting. This one goes into my slide show.

Thanks for sharing!

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Here’s wishing the happiest of VizEds birthdays to Chris Rukan, sports layout editor of The Washington Post. Chris turns 34 today.

Chris Rukan, right, and Mike Rice admire baby photos
by RedEye’s Chris Courtney, February in Syracuse.
Photo by Matt Erickson.
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Chris is a 1998 graduate of Southern Connecticut State University. That, right there, surprises me. Not that Chris graduated. What surprises me is there is a university called Southern Connecticut State. I didn’t know Connecticut was large enough to have a southern portion. Hell, I thought Southern Connecticut was called Long Island Sound.

But I digress…

Chris spent part of his college years and immediate afterward as a designer and copy editor for the Connecticut Post in Bridgeport. In 1999, he was hired as a designer by the Orlando Sentinel. The Sentinel eventually promoted him to assistant sports editor.

Five years later, Chris leaped to the Palm Beach Post to become sports design director. There, he fulfilled the dream of virtually every sports designer in the world by designing this page:

Come on, admit it. You always wanted to do that. Right? Yet only Chris — and his bosses in Palm Beach — had the balls to pull it off.

Three years ago in Orlando, Chris and his pal Roger Simmons of Palm Beach taught a session on “Making Special Sections Special” for APSE. Read coverage of that session here:
http://apse.dallasnews.com/2005/aug2005/13sprout.html

Chris Rukan at APSE/Orlando,
2005. Photo by David Manning.
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In 2006, the Washington Post was smart enough to hire Chris away from the Palm Beach Post.

In other words, Chris left the Post for the Post. Read the post here.

A few examples of Chris’ work:

See more, of course, in his NewsPageDesigner gallery.

Chris won an SND portfolio award for his work in 2005:

Chris shares a birthday with news leadership consultant Monica Moses, Olympic skater Peggy Fleming, New York Yankee Alex “A-Rod” Rodriguez, legendary baseball manager Leo Durocher and Jerry Van Dyke — who starred as “Luther” on the TV show Coach.

In addition, today is Take Your Pants for a Walk Day. Seriously.

Best wishes for a happy birthday, Chris!

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