Austin goes spadea with its post-election day paper
So in our Wednesday post-election post, we mentioned the Austin American-Statesman only in comparison with the San Antonio Express-News:, its neighbor only 80 miles away on I-35.
We found it unfortunate that both papers went with a blue reverse box across the top of their pages. Readers in the overlapping distribution areas must have been awfully confused Wednesday. Or amused.
Well, it turns out that page — like so many others posted Wednesday at the Newseum — was a first edition. Later editions contained a different photo. More importantly, the Newseum’s page doesn’t reflect the main feature of the American-Statesman’s Wednesday front: It was wrapped with a cool spadea.
Sharon Roberts, AME/Presentation of the American-Statesman, writes:
Yep, the broadsheet looked like San Antonio, although the spadea really did distinguish us from them.
Thankfully, a better image was available later. Photo editing for an image you know will be half covered is pretty difficult and limiting. We were fortunate in the end.
Here’s the spadea wrapped around the edition, as readers saw it:
Sharon’s team did something very complex here — they Photoshopped into the background of the spadea the top portion of the front page. Notice the subtle way the photo lurks behind the three decks of headlines. Also notice how the main head and the nameplate match up, with no gutter or margin.
I’ve never seen anyone print a bleed on a spadea. Very cool.
Here’s what it looked like once readers opened the spadea to read the inside flap:
Like many papers, the American-Statesman sold a ton of copies Wednesday and went back to press for more, Sharon says. And that’s in a red state that went strongly for McCain.
American-Statesman
AME Sharon Roberts
—
Sharon explained how it all came about:
While brainstorming ideas for our election results edition, Managing Editor Debbie Hiott stressed it must be a really special presentation that would serve as a commemorative edition readers would save for years to come. AME Drew Marcks suggested a spadea.
G.W. Babb, Director of Graphics and Design, ran with the idea, first prototyping a poster front — one for each candidate –Â with canned portraits. Editor Fred Zipp rejected the initial, canned-portrait mock-up, insisting news stories be on the cover and the lede image be a true news photo. He wanted to be sure the finished product was a solid news report and not a design gimmick.
American-Statesman design director
G.W. Babb in December 2007.
—
G.W. continued to polish the prototype and showed that the extra space provided by the spadea format could be used to display more headlines and an election map as well as contain a local reaction story with photos; the broadsheet started three stories.
The hardest part: extensive conversations with key folks from advertising, circulation, packaging and, ad makeup and, most critically, production. We’re in the middle of an extensive plant expansion which presented some “mailroom issues.”
Add to that the difficulty of photo editing for the best image that also happens to have dramatic, front-page-worthy visual content on the right half of the frame. And Obama did not make it on stage until just before 11:00 p.m., our time. Director of Photography Jay Godwin did an outstanding job finding the best image and we were ultimately happy with our final edition.
There was a myriad of details to dog such as the proper “bleed” and platemaking machinery breakdowns. After much wringing of hands, the outcome was a huge success. We surpassed our estimate of what we thought we’d sell, even including an increased draw of many thousands. Later Wednesday afternoon, we printed an additional 8,200 election specials which sold like crazy.
The Virginian-Pilot still uses a spadea from time-to-time — as a draw for tourists on summer weekends, on holiday weekends and on election days. The Pilot ran one Tuesday, with a reminder to vote and voting tips. Naturally, none of these show up at the Newseum.
Did anyone else out there use spadeas as part of their election coverage, before or after?
Want a cloer look at Austin’s spadea?. Tap the thumbnails.
 
Very cool, Sharon. Thanks for sharing!