Election front pages, take two: The day after
Sure, there are some very nice election fronts out there today. But too many of them seem to have that disease that affects all U.S. newspapers — they suffer from an overall sameness.Granted, this is caused by several factors. First, elections are a breaking news story. The election was called for Barack Obama right around 11 p.m. That left precious little time for brainstorming innovative solutions.
Secondly, most papers tend to want to lead with live art, when possible. And live art of Obama wasn’t possible until he appeared on state in Chicago’s Grant Park last night — after the results were clear.
But you’ll have to admit, too damn many U.S. newspapers are far too quick to go with a conventional solution to any situation, be it presention or anything else.
With that in mind, let’s look at papers that attempted to do something fresh and unusual last night…
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THE BEST OF THE NIGHT
Our favorite front today was from the Chicago Sun Times:
An unusual choice, perhaps, to go with a portrait shot in advance, rather than with something shot live — especially for such a history-making moment. But that’s what innovative thinking is all about: Zigging when everyone else zags.
Design director Eric White writes:
There’s not much to it, really. Obviously, we wanted to do something historic, powerful, simple, take advantage of the tab format. James Smith, our Page 1 designer, came to me about a week ago and said, “I’ve got an idea for the cover, what do you think?â€
And I said, “That’s it.†And so did Michael Cooke and Don Hayner, our top editors. It’s the only thing we looked at. Nothing was going to beat that.
The only real discussion James and I had was whether to put a slight sepia on it or go straight 4-color black and white. Normally, I’m not a fan of the sepia effect, but it gave his face needed warmth. We bought the image from Corbis.
The papers are selling so fast, we’re having a hard time keeping up with demand. There’s a long line of people downstairs who want copies of the front page on glossy white paper. The store only has one printer, so the line just grows.
You might recall that Eric and his crew put together a really interesting front page during the Democratic Convention, back in August. Find that here.
Another presentation that struck us this morning was a similar idea — this gorgeous portrait in the Orlando Sentinel. Note how the Sentinel reduced its nameplate and went with no headline, no promos, no bar code:
…other than the navigational aid and the ad at the bottom of the page, that is.
But wait! There’s more!
Orlando AME Bonita Burton tells us that page — which we found at the Newseum, of course — was only the Sentinel’s first edition. Forty-five minutes later, the Sentinel chased its run, adding a wrap. Here is the result:
And yes, the wrap featured a wrap-around cover. Here’s the whole thing:
Outstanding!
Another very unusual approach was taken by another Tribune paper, the Hartford Courant. Hartford turned its front page sideways for a dramatic poster front of Obama and his family onstage at Grant Park:
We just don’t see it working in a newspaper rack: It creates a really awkward presence above the fold.
The Courant’s Melanie Shaffer writes:
Yes, that was page one and it did run sideways… after all, we flopped our nameplate sideways back in September, so we embraced it and went dramatic.
This was a historic moment in our country, it deserved this treatment and we chose not to do a headline, but put one simple quote beneath it. Simple and contemplative. Hopefully, it hangs on someones wall somewhere.
Michelle Obama and daughter are above the fold, ideally it would have been Barack Obama, but we couldn’t pass up this image. This journey has been a family’s journey as well, and this was a celebration for all four of them: the new first family.
Greg Harmel, our A1 designer, started working on the cover concept a week ago. Our editors were immediately on board with the idea.
We did have a bar code and a strip ad at the bottom (which really was on the left when the page flopped sideways)! But somehow it didn’t export into newseum that way.
At least it’s different.
And speaking of different, the Times-Picayune of New Orleans did something similar to what the Plain Dealer did yesterday: It attempted to put Obama’s win in historical perspective by running mug shots of all 44 presidents.
The idea to run them all black-and-white except for Obama was inspired. Nice touch.
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LEADING WITH A BIG HEADLINE
For some papers, getting their headline above the fold seemed to be of primary importance. And perphaps rightfully so.
This hed atop today’s Greensboro News & Record really pops, for example. And how nice the background of the photo is a rich blue — it contrasts nicely with the red-and-white striped bunting icon.
The designer on that page was Ben Villarreal, we’re told.
Similarly, the Arizona Republic — the largest paper in John McCain’s home state — went with two huge decks that would fill the window of just about any newspaper rack:
Here’s a very nice typographical treatment by a tiny paper in Texas, the Longview News-Journal:
That’s a very impressive rack impression Longview would make.
Extra credit goes to the Buffalo News for trying to do something different by focusing on the huge crowd celebrating Obama’s victory in Grant Park:
It doesn’t quite work, though. The headline gets lost among all the arms and heads. Perhaps if the headline were a bolder sans-serif.
Buffalo’s Vince Chiaramonte tells us, however:
Charles, the page you have ran for only one edition (Newseum grabbed the wrong pdf). You can find the final edition on NewsPageDesigner under news (page by John Davis).
Ah. Lots of that going around today. Here’s the final:
Yeah, that headline works a lot better here. Thanks, Vince!
And on the other end of the spectrum, the SunSentinel of Fort Lauderdale elected to go with no big headline at all. Perhaps one wasn’t needed:
We asked Paul Wallen who did the honors last night. He responds:
Seriously, there were way too many people with a hand in it to try to single anyone or even a small group out. It was staff effort in the true sense of the word.
Fair enough. That’s a fabulous shot of three of the four Obama family members walking out on stage, though. Which makes a great segue into…
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THE FAMILY WAVING ONSTAGE
Many, many newspapers led with photos of Obama onstage with his family at Grant Park. Granted (heh), these were probably some of the best shots of the day. And they made for some compelling front pages.
As you scroll through the Newseum, these photos give a real sense of sameness to many of today’s fronts. On the other hand, you could argue that these pages aren’t designed to be viewed as a set of jpegs at the Newseum. After all, how many news stands display dozens of papers, side-by-side?
Our favorite use of the family shot was by the Plain Dealer of Cleveland — another paper that downplayed its nameplate atop today’s edition:
The typography here is wonderful. What an inviting page. Cleveland AME David Kordalski gives credit to a:
Cast of thousands, because of keen interest, but the lion’s share was [Michael] Tribble and [Emmet] Smith … a very potent combo: Super fun to wind them up and let them go to town.
We love the headline on today’s Orange County Register. It’s cool how Obama’s hand fits in the notch, beneath the hyphen:
A very nice use of balance-of-power charts downpage by the OCR, as well.
Near-identical crops were used by The State of Columbia, S.C. (designed by Meredith Sheffer)…
…and the Salt Lake Tribune (designed by AME Josh Awtry):
We like the secondary shot of McCain by Columbia, but we prefer the red quote text by Salt Lake City. Unfortunately, the reversed headline gets a little lost among the flags in the latter. Again, perhaps a bolder, sans-serif hed would have worked better here.
And then there’s the Kansas City Star’s front, designed by Greg Branson and Charles Gooch. It bugs us just a little. Can you see why?
Yes, that’s a live news photo into which they photoshopped the main headline. Most papers have firm rules against this sort of thing. We find it awfully jarring.
On the other hand, pehaps these sort of rules are growing outdated. Magazines, certainly, do this sort of headline thing all the time. Perhaps the Star is simply ahead of the rest of us.
In response to my query, the Goochman replies:
That was our thought, that it was more magazine-ish. I don’t think it’s that much different than what The Salt Lake Tribune did. Or any of the newspapers that had his head peeking over the world Obama. We had plenty of discussions about it, both before the election and as the election unfolded.
It’s worth talking about. And it made for yet another very attractive front for the Star.
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THAT SAMENESS THING
The problem with thinking “outside the box” is that if everybody does it, you end up with a big crowd of people outside the box.
What happens when two papers — in roughly the same area — “zig” instead of “zag” at the same time? You wind up with unfortunate accidents like these…
Neither Austin nor San Antonio normally reverse their nameplates or headlines out of blue boxes. But, for some reason, they both did today:
That’s got to be confusing for any readers who live in an area where you can buy both papers.
The Seattle dailies today look different but the headlines are nearly identical:
And, for that matter, look at today’s Chicago tabs. You’ve already seen the Sun-Times, but…
Of all the days for RedEye to go with a tight portrait crop! This must make for some interesting moments for vendors at the “L” stops.
Before anyone thinks we’re slamming RedEye, though, let us point out what you’re really seeing here is the right side of a wrap-around cover. Chris Courtney was kind enough to send us the whole thing:
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POSTER PAGES
Although they’re in danger, somewhat, of becoming a cliché themselves, we love it when newspapers reach out to their readers on special occasions with the large poster-page treatment.
The catch, of course, is that it has to be just the right incredible photo. Do this with an ordinary news photo and it just falls flat.
Many papers used this extreme vertical of Obama waving on A1, but The Omaha World-Herald was one of a few papers that chose to reverse most of its text — the nameplate, promos, the lead story — out of the black background of the photo:
The result is very bold, but it can be difficult to pull off if your presses don’t hold very tight registration.
Bakersfield again dispensed with its infamous “inverted L” and did the same thing Omaha did. Instad of a story, though, the Californian went with a quote from Obama’s inspiring victory speech:
Bako AME James Bennett writes the page was a…
…big team effort. I had to fight for the extended quote, but I wanted to touch on all the themes.
The Harrisburg Patriot-News went with a similar idea, but used quotes from Martin Luther King Jr. and Obama:
David Newhouse, editor of the Patriot-News, writes the designer was…
…one of our two news design editors, a young guy named Chris Boehke. Very talented
The headline typography treatment across the top of this page is one of our favorites of the night. Those serifs and the red date contrast well against the black background.
Again, though, we’d be concerned about readability of the stories at the bottom of the page. If you try this at home, boys and girls, make sure you take the magenta and the yellow and most of the blue out of that black background, or anything less than pefect registration will leave you red-faced on Wednesday morning.
Not quite as elegant — but still very nice — is the Green Bay Press-Gazette. We’re happy to show a paper that rarely gets any design attention:
Today’s Virginian-Pilot downplayed the nameplate and played up “Obama.” This looks great in newspaper racks today:
Yes, they ran the headline behind Obama’s head. But for the record, that’s not a live shot from last night. That’s file art. You can tell: Obama’s tie last night was red, not blue.
That was the Pilot’s Robert Suhay with the design, by the way.
A number of papers chose to dispenese with any story entirely and just blow out their photo on the front. The Chicago Tribune — which made history of its own recently by endorsing Obama, the first time ever the paper endorsed a Democrat for president — sends along this page, which is not posted at the Newseum:
The San Francisco Chronicle’s presentation seems particularly heroic:
We’re wondering about the deep blue hue of Obama’s jacket, though. It looks much more gray in the other photos we’ve seen from last night. Very odd. Nice design, though, particularly with the headline reversed out of the bottom of the photo.
Scott Lester of the Des Moines Register designed something similar:
See what we mean about the jacket color?
We also like the typographic treatment at the bottom of the page. The electoral totals on the left look very clean. Nice job.
The Daily News of Naples, Fla. — a tiny little paper — also got big results with a similar photo:
Again, we love how these papers are downplaying their nameplates, which puts more emphasis on the photo. This can be a difficult sell to some editors. We hope they’re happy with the high-impact results today.
The Oregonian of Portland also went with a huge photo. It comes across spotty in this jpeg, We hope it looked better in print:
Something that bugs us about all these photos, though: They all seem so dark. That’s a result, perhaps, of the historic photo op being held outdoors at night.
The tiny Herald of Rock Hill, S.C., chose for its poster front, a shot with a U.S. flag in the background. It certainly makes for a brighter front:
That page was designed by my old friend Virginia Judge. Get well soon, Virginia!
And lastly, the Richmond Times-Dispatch takes us back into the daylight with a file shot. As with so many of these, note how the designer downsized the paper’s nameplate to give the big headline more dominance:
Did you see any pages out there that we should have cited? Can you shed any additional info about the ones we’re showing here? Let us know; we’ll update this post today as needed.
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MEANWHILE, IN RELATED NEWS…
Newspapers are selling like crazy today. The New York Times had to print an additional 50,000 papers. The Chicago Tribune reprinted 200,000. USA Today went back for an additional half-million copies. Rather than crank up the presses again, the Washington Post elected to publish an Extra edition today. Read Joe Strupp’s report in Editor & Publisher.
In Obama’s hometown, folks are nuts for more papers. The Sun-Times has sold out, despite doubling its print run today. One man bought 300 copies directly from a delivery truck.
The Virginian-Pilot printed an additional 15,000 copies today. One area 7-Eleven requested an additional 200 copies, the Pilot reports. There was also a run on papers at the Pilot’s competitor, the Daily Press. The same at the Baltimore Sun. The same for papers in the Carolinas. Crowds at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution office were so thick the AJC finally set up a table on the sidewalk.
The Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer is offering slick (probably Velox) reprints of today’s front page, suitable for framing. Only forty bucks.Â
Our good friend Robb Montgomery posted his own favorite selections today, including a number of international papers. Find those here.
November 5th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
I think the winner today is the reader. I like seeing the industry as a whole “Going for it.” You never would have seen this many papers, with this quality of work 10 years ago. Bravo to all.
Billy Simkins
November 5th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Billy’s right. It’s awesome to see so many people go for it. I totally want one of the Red Eye wrap covers!
For the record, Bakersfield did keep a nod to the oft-maligned “hot L” on A1 today. We purposely positioned the black boxes under the photo so they would at least hint at a regular looking A1.
November 5th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
A lot of these pages capture the history of the night, which is great, but very few of them get at the electricity of the moment, which for a daily paper is just as important. The pages where you can see some crowd faces or blurry, waving flags took a shot, as did Buffalo’s first edition (although I agree with you, Charles, that the “HISTORY” headline didn’t work).
That’s why I liked our first edition at the Union-Tribune better than our final, for which we switched to the same photo that the Plain Dealer used.
To me, the pages in this collection that excelled were the ones with the secondary crowd shots - especially Salt Lake City, where the excitement of the smaller photo outweighed some questionable typography with the “OBAMA” head.
The front page that may have outdone us all, though, was The Washington Post’s (the link is to the Post’s site; Newseum has slowed to a crawl, for me at least). It gave us history in the main heads and lead photo, overwhelming emotion with a killer secondary photo, and a look ahead with Dan Balz’s article about the challenges Obama faces. Fantastic.
November 5th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Take a look at this widget:
http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/todays-newspaper-frontpages-by-map
It shows international newspapers by continent and country and you can click to read the entire front page in full size.
November 5th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Looks like Newspapers are hot on Ebay today.. wow.
November 5th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
The Sun-Times and Orlando Sentinel pages are beautiful, and I deeply admire Eric White and my friend Bonita Burton, but those are not news pages.
The Obama images are file photos… staged portraits. Why would you go there on such an historic night?
Would you advocate running a file photo of Michael Jordan on the night the Bulls won an NBA championship? The Tribune had a stunning Obama portrait but we chose to go with an actual moment… that’s what news is, immediacy, relevance.
November 5th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
Looking at Newseum today (which proved to be more difficult than Obama winning Virginia), I was really struck by a couple of things:
-The poster pages, while often beautiful, are now as cliched as more traditional approaches, but without all of those fancy words, graphics or information.
-I’m still trying to understand the appeal of running an older studio photo over actually documenting Obama’s acceptance speech. To be different? Sure, there are a ton of things you could do to be different. But is being different serving your journalistic mission of showing the significance of what actually happened last night? It’s letting what looks good get ahead of the content of the news.
-There are papers you show here that clearly could have used a photo of Obama’s last night, even for their preconceived 1A plans, but intentionally chose not to. And while those pages look cool, the content (in this case photos) on those pages isn’t being true to the content of the news itself. I think that approach is becoming more and more accepted, and in fact applauded, in our industry. And I don’t see how that helps our credibility as journalists at all.
-What seemed to be missing a lot, and is certainly missing in many of these fronts is any sort of depth about how and why Obama won and what that means about us and our future. Assuming most people knew Obama was President before they picked up today’s paper, were they really looking for his face to be as big as theirs on the front page this morning? Or is that what we were looking for as page designers?
-We could take Photoshop out of every newsroom, and while we’d lose some things, we would be a lot better as an industry. It often makes us focus in on all the wrong details.
-And finally, people weren’t lined up around the corner today to buy the paper because of these 1A designs. They bought the paper to be a part of history. I worry that our approach these days takes us further and further away from putting that history in context for their lives.
November 5th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
I’m with a bunch of the posters above: it feels like you a day you’ve got to have a live photo (actually, that’s almost every day for a newspaper) and a day where you want a design, like the WashPost, that promises you lots to read. The poster pages are handsome, especially at the tiny size we’re looking at them, but what I crave as a reader is both drama *and* depth .
November 5th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
There are some beautiful pages with timely art, too. But isn’t it likely most people saw those news images via television and/or online? And I would agree with Mark (above), who says many of the Barack images from last night did not completely capture the excitement, so in the end, using file vs. live of Obama wouldn’t necessarily make that much difference. Especially when using the tight crop - as in The Times-Picayune - which really doesn’t give any extra information of the event.
Daily print journalism often finds itself stale on news - it’s obviously not the most immediate anymore. So why not try to fill a different niche? Or at least provide something unconventional. The Tulsa World (the paper I work for) sold out of its copies fairly quickly today, as did the rest of the country, I’m sure. (And we used the tight crop of waving.) It’s a great commemorative item. Perhaps live art is best for a keepsake, but I think what’s more important is a page that captured the immensity of the event and that was executed in a clean, beautiful way.
November 5th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
…and to echo Ron, I think you can make a pretty compelling case that while the giant-portrait-no-stories-one-word-hed poster page may be bold, it’s certainly not unexpected.
November 5th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Good points, Rob.
Speaking from the East Coast, it was hectic waiting for a photo. Obama didn’t even come out to begin talking until after our first deadline at the Republican-American. So we waited … and waited. And I grabbed one of the first (if not the first) photos the AP sent just after midnight.
We had three stories on 1A: Obama, an important local U.S. House race and swaps for local state legislative upsets. No Photoshop.
And we sold like crazy. Even with that masthead that I know Charles enjoys so much.
Nice work the last two days, Mr. Apple!!!
November 5th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
I thought today was a huge day for print. It really showed the value of print when recording a big event. Our paper was sold out early in the day. It means something to people. You really can’t get that with digital. I can’t remember a time when American newspapers as a whole decided to surprise their readers. If a paper wants to create something readers can hang on their wall, great. I’m not sure it qualifies as cliche because it’s been seen before. One could argue the LA Times and NY Times look cliche. I’m glad to see American newspapers, both big AND small pushing the limits of their print product.
November 5th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
One COULD argue that the LA Times and NY Times look cliche . . . but they’d be wrong.
November 6th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Just to clarify Orlando’s approach, I’m with Joe and others who insisted on a live image. It’s anti-climactic to give readers something canned on a day like this. We used the studio shot for our first edition just to get something on the trucks headed to our outlying readers - it had to go to press before McCain conceded. It went to only 6,000 households. The 12-column photo we ran documenting the electricity of the Obamas walking out into the Grant Park scene REPLACED the studio shot on page one, it didn’t wrap around it. (For the first edition we published a photo essay on the back page that dropped off).
Overall, I thought there was more invention in U.S. newspapers on Wednesday than we’ve seen in a long time. East Coasters in particular were up against really awful deadlines. It was great to see so many of them capture the quintessential moment for their readers.
November 6th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
I agree with DesignHawg’s points. I also think Obama needs a tailor — his pants are too long (you can see it in the Bakersfield front).
The Sun-Times’ black-and-white treatment seems to drive the point home that this was a historic vote without saying “history.” I really liked that.
What I’m not sure I liked about many of the non-poster pages is that they commemorated the moment and delivered election results, but didn’t look ahead much. Seems to me that there should’ve been a little more “Obama won, and here’s what we can expect now from America’s first black president.” I may well be wrong — and I’m hoping I am — but it’s like outside of the “first black president” angle, we went back to template with what appeared out front. So much for that “spinning forward” thing we’re always thinking about.
Well, first REAL black president. (Wasn’t Clinton called America’s first black president?)
November 6th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Thanks for the clarification, Bo. While at first I thought your crowd shot was a bit too far away to really convey the emotion, the more I look at it, the more I’m impressed by that sea of people. I suspect your readers liked it even better, what with seeing it a ton bigger and being able to hold it in their hands.
Doug: Yeah, most of the fronts missed the “what now” angle. That’s why I liked the Post so much.
For what it’s worth, we apparently sold at least 50,000 more street copies than usual yesterday. Wow. The rack in our parking lot was empty when I got to the office. I’ve never seen that before.
November 6th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
UPDATE: I have assembled a slideshow of the better international front pages today at the blog.
I think the magic with that Sun-Times cover is that it projected so perfectly into the feeling and emotion on that morning after here in Chicago.
By wisely not using images we had seen the night before on our TV screens and our Web screens the editor and designer transcended the news event and created a moment that resonated with readers in Chicago’s minority community on a level that other efforts didn’t match. That has always been that paper’s strength.
November 7th, 2008 at 12:44 am
So, Robbb, as I understand it, you’re saying more minorities bought the Sun-Times on Wednesday morning than the Tribune? Are there numbers to back that up? And all because they didn’t cover the historic live news event photographically that happened in the same city that live, a rally that was commemorating not only the first African-American President but the first President who lives in Chicago?
They connected better with the paper that ran one photo from the rally - a rally in Chicago - in its edition. And they did that because they were tired of seeing the images on their TV screen or in person from the night before? A studio shot done months earlier connected better with the Chicago minority community than shooting a photo from an event that a large part of the minority community from Chicago actually attended?
Don’t get me wrong, the design of the Sun-Times cover by Eric, James and crew is really cool. But when people say that we take ourselves entirely too seriously, I think your above words would be a great example of that.
November 7th, 2008 at 2:36 am
I agree with Joe on this one … how in the world does a paper that uses a canned image get praise as one of the best looking covers of the day?
Charles writes about the Sun-Times. He reports that the image was purchased from Corbis, and the top editors didn’t even try anything else because nothing was going to beat that.
Really?
Newspapers owe it to readers to bring them the latest and greatest. And not to pick on the Sun-Times, but the paper is in the city where the rally is going on and it’s talking about a Corbis image being the very best? And folks are talking up this cover as the best cover in Chicago while newsrooms everywhere worked their tails off to get the latest images?
As a reader, I’m disgusted by this.
As a journalist that worked until 4 in the morning, I’m disgusted by this.
Once again, I’ll use the Sun-Times as my whipping boy … it’s a cop-out and you know what? It’s not that great of a cover. It’s just average and that doesn’t fly on an extraordinary night.
In the case of Orlando, I’m a little more forgiving because Bonita explained needing to get a first edition out. They went back and updated and made it better — they made it MUCH better. The Tribune did the same thing. That’s how you do it. That’s how breaking news is supposed to be done. You get it going and then you do it again. And you do it better. And you think of the readers when you are doing it. And you strive to make it as darn near perfect as you can.
So one last time … if there were awards for this night, I’d give the Sun-Times last place for lack of imagination, drive and an attempt at giving the reader a much deserved historical cover. What they got was a cover that could have been designed a week ago — and apparently it was. And if a reader truly knew that before making a purchase, well, I’d think they’d want their money back.
November 7th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
It did not make the front pages of the Atlanta Journal and Constitution in Hot-Lanta, Georgia!!!! Instead it was on an insert in the back of the paper!
November 7th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
Great conversation. And what I am about to add will probably raise more questions than provide answers. (Hey, I’m a manager. It’s my job.)
I loved the poster pages. But would have loved them more as a nice reader surprise inside my paper.
Loved the portraits, too. Beautiful. Striking. But would have loved them more with a well written profile of Obama inside my paper.
What I really loved was that many of us had to crank up the presses to run off tousands of additional copies to meet demand.
But, yes, I lean toward the more traditional side of the news design spectrum. So, Charles, go ahead and call me Mr. Sameness or Mr. Cliche. As you know, Bud, I’ve been called a lot worse. But I was looking for something more in my report. I was looking for immediacy, a sense of the moment, context and relevancy. And, yes, I was looking for volume, too. I was looking for that great shot of Obama in Grant Park, for a story that captured the history of it all, a local story that gave me something TV didn’t, and some form of an electoral map or graphic that told me where Obama was winning — and where McCain wasn’t. Yes, I was looking for something to read, something to help me understand. And I was looking for it now — right now. Please don’t tell me that’s all inside.
A single photo and headline is powerful, but it also fails to capture the complexity of what Obama pulled off. I mean, it was his strategy to expand the electoral map, to cross the divide that is American politics, to win states that Bush had captured in 2000 and 2004. And, damn, he did. He won in the South (N.C., Virginia and Florida). He won in the Midwest (Ohio, Indiana and Iowa). He won in the interior West (Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada). Let me repeat, he won Indiana and North Carolina. (True, those states were too close to call — even the next day — but even at that, it was pretty remarkable, and pretty remarkable to see that on a map.)
So I’ve been scratching my head a bit. Seems like the newspaper design industry has been spending a lot of time talking about alternative story forms, singing the praises about alternative story forms, creating cheat sheets and handouts, holding seminars and online chats about alternative story forms. Alternative story forms are a good thing, we say. I love alternative story forms — especially tried and true forms that tell a story like, say, an electoral map. They add context. They offer up information that’s quick and easy to understand. They show. They help explain. They appeal to folks who aren’t always inclined to read a 40-inch story. They broaden our reach and our appeal.
It seems, too, that our entire industry, in the push to become more relevant for our readers, is talking about providing more local, local, local news in our report. Hey, I’m all for that. CNN didn’t tell me that two-time GOP incumbent Marilyn Musgrave lost her House seat, helping turn Colorado’s Congressional delegation into a very blue 7 Democrats and 2 Republicans.
And creative thinking? We love that, too.
So please explain, how does the poster page do any of that?
I saw a lot of powerful pages the day after election day. I saw a lot of tack sharp execution — with type, grids, graphics, headline structures and stories. I saw fronts — a lot of fronts, in fact — with big photos that engaged me emotionally and invited me to linger for awhile. So congrats. But those papers that interested me most were those that ran stories, stories that interested me even though I’m here in Colorado. The poster pages? Beautiful, but after I had seen one?
My favorite page from this election cycle was one that ran on election day — by The Friggin’ Plain Dealer. Lining up all the presidents — from George to Geroge, then showing Obama and McCain and inviting us to pick one. Smart. Informative. Historical. Brilliant. Creative. Alternative. Made me say, in envy, “DAMN THEM!!!” I didn’t say that about any of the poster pages the day after the vote. To be fair, didn’t say that about a lot of other papers that were more traditional — including mine. But they gave me other stuff to examine. They gave me more points of information.
Bottom line, here, is that I just have my own perspective on what constitutes a good page for this particular story. I still believe that what we can do better than anyone else, through a compelling combination and balance of words and visuals and creativity, is tell stories — and take people places they weren’t able to go. And everyone loves a good story told well. But you know what? I want to be engaged right now when I pick up my paper. I don’t want a magazine cover experience where I get a nod of what’s going on and then have to go look inside — on different pages — for the stories I was wanting to read on the cover. As a reader, I approach a report like this more like I read a book, from cover to cover, where the story is plotted and paced from beginning to end, one chapter (presidency) followed by another (the balance of power in the Senate and House) and then another (state and local races).
So there you have the reflections of an old newspaper fart who spends a couple hours most days reading a paper — and still likes to fold it up, tuck it under my arm and take it wherever I want to go. I am loyal. I pay. And I am fortunate as a journalist to sit on the front row of history — and help tell the story.
November 8th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
We’re just like sports fans whose team’s having a bad season. Even after a big, rare win, we can’t stop Monday-morning quarterbacking.
November 8th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Rob.
Exactly - it was the timing and the the fact that it is a “message” cover. A very different animal. The paper ran plenty of Grant Park photos inside. I guess to not understand why a message cover is so important is to not understand there are two Chicago’s and, thankfully, there are two newspapers in Chicago. Chicago voters and political machine was the epicenter and a pillar of strength in electing Senator Obama.
Other first edition live news efforts were really nice and I pointed them out in my blog but I don’t think that will change Oprah’s mind.
Sure, it’s easy to diss her too, but her reaction was typical of my non-white friends who I talked to about the covers. And in particular - The Sun-Times cover. It choked them up and still does.
November 8th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
For what it’s worth, we’ve had thousands of requests for the first edition cover that we thought wouldn’t resonate with readers because it didn’t feature a live image (people saw it on our website). That suggests there’s merit to either approach.
As for the ASF question, we’ve certainly produced our fair share of handouts and seminars on the subject in Orlando. In our election planning, we made a concerted effort to weave nontraditional storytelling through every page. So for us, the poster front was both a final statement and a beginning of our unconventional report. We tried to bring equal impact to every page, from A2 to OpEd.
You can see Wednesday’s entire A-section here:
http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=F.489852e4-df2c-4c60-b72e-e4a0d6d4bd2e
November 9th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
I always agree with Damon (aka Mr. Sameness, aka Mr. Cliche… ha, ha)
So I guess this is the exception that proves the rule.
But I have a hard time buying the argument that we should push the emotional impact inside in favor of small text and complexity on the front. And I think the sheer scale of the photos provide volume as well or better than a giant headline. Plus, the problem with a giant headline is that you end up with the obvious and immediately dated, like “Obama” or “History.” What does that really add?
For me, I’ll take the emotion, context and instant storytelling a photo offers as the strongest hook on the front page. And if you give me an easy to read menu of everything else to help me easily navigate, it’s a lot more pleasant experience for me than several stories that jump, forcing me to go back and forth and all over the place.
I think the alternative story form point is a great one though. It was a great day for front pages, but in my dream world there would have been more innovation, not only in secondary elements and inside pages but on the big headlines and display type on the front. I’m preaching to myself here more than anyone. (Orlando’s A section was quite impressive front to back with, as Bo indicates, lots of different story forms. Kudos to them.)
I also think Jim makes a great point. Maybe there’s no one “right” or “wrong” way and that it’s OK if we have different approaches in different newsrooms and different markets. After all, the differences we’re dissecting are probably microscopic in the eyes of the readers, who don’t look at volumes of front pages every day.
On a day like this, I don’t think it mattered very much whether you had just a giant photo like Hartford or a more traditional front with jumps. The moment was so big it couldn’t really be messed up.
The real question is how can we generate more interest on the days without an Obama-sized story?
November 10th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
I always agree with Paul Wallen. ALWAYS. (Well, almost always.) He’s so damn smart and good. And dreamy. But I especially agree with him on this one: “The real question is how can we generate more interest on the days without an Obama-sized story?”
Answers?