Charles Apple

We noticed last year a number of papers ran huge Independence Day page one treatments.

The reason is quite simple: Many papers have found that single-copy sales are pretty much in the toilet on some holidays. That’s why the Virginian-Pilot didn’t mind running a huge gravestone rubbing on Memorial Day or the Rock Hill, S.C., Herald didn’t mind running a huge, full-page flag on the Fourth of July or why several papers ran full-page “Christmas card” front pages on Christmas Day.

You’re not going to sell many papers. Why not take the opportunity to do something really different? You might just get lucky and capture a few eyeballs you wouldn’t normally attract.

The catch, of course, is that you have to justify putting no news out on A1. If any news breaks — really, anything at all — then it’s hard to imagine pushing it inside for a big U.S. flag or a Christmas ribbon.

Therefore, last night’s surprise announcement by former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin that she was stepping down as governor of Alaska may have knocked planned Independence Day treatments off of A1 at several papers.

And if that’s the case, then that’s OK. As much as we like these big, unusual treatments, we like breaking news even more.

With that disclaimer, though, let’s look at some of the most unusual or outstanding Fourth of July page one treatments would could find today via the Newseum…

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OUR FAVORITE JULY 4TH FRONTS

The Huntsville Times gets extra points today for this touching tribute painted on the side of a small country store in Lacey’s Spring, Ala. The photo is by Bob Fathany:

Design director Tim Ball tells us:

It’s been a while since I’ve been as happy with a page I’ve designed. Some terrific photography by our staff and a great story behind the main photo.

The package refers to a couple of pullout items inside: A copy of the Declaration of Independence and a reproduction of the huge John Trumbull painting of the signing of the Declaration that hangs in the Capitol rotunda in Washington D.C.

Huntsville has an average daily circulation of about 57,000.

The Daily Times of Kerrville, Texas — circulation only 8,880 — went with a simple closeup of the flag, paired with a promo to a quiz on U.S. history (more about quizzes later).

The photo is wonderful — just imagine what this looks like in a newspaper rack — but frankly, we feel the scissors and dotted outline detracted, a bit, from the package.

The Star Press of Muncie, Ind., also used a huge flag to great effect above the fold:

The main story is about a local fireworks wholesaler. Having the flagpole run all the way down the side of the page — even past the unrelated dog story stripped across the bottom — and interact slightly with the nameplate are very nice touches.

Muncie has an average daily circulation of about 32,600.

The Sun Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale joined the large number of papers that focused on the Declaration of Independence today. We’re surprised they took the actual, priceless document and sliced out the center in order to create this centerpiece…

Oh, wait. That’s Photoshop. Never mind.

In all, a relatively subdued effort for the Sun Sentinel and one that works pretty well today. We especially like the simple but bold header across the top of the page (More about headers later, too).

Y’know, every time we see a photo montage, we tell ourselves this is the last time we’ll ever show one of these here in the blog. Photo montages have simply become way too cliché.

But then the Times-Dispatch of Richmond, Va., goes and gives us a new way to use one:

Nicely done. We’ll have to drive around to see if we can find a tearsheet of this one today.

The Patriot Ledger of Quincy, Mass. — circulation 66,200 — also focused on citizens of this great land of ours today. We love the photo of the cute face-painted kid and the design within the tan box; we find the huge star-and-striped frame very much overdone:

Lesson: If you content is good, you don’t have to decorate your page in order to draw attention to it. And the content was plenty good here today.

Lots of papers have run stories about the reopening of the inside of the Statue of Liberty this weekend, for the first time since 9/11. Some papers even held this story until today (not a wise choice, we think, in an age in whinch readers can easily find those wire stories at other newspapers or in their favorite aggregator).

The News & Record of Greensboro, N.C., didn’t do that, however. The story is rather abstract — about finding four words for the Fourth to describe Patriotism:

The package is wonderfully designed. The vertical crop and the interaction of the reversed text and the box containing the top of the story is perfectly balanced.

But what an interesting idea for a story. The News & Record’s average circulation is about 84,000, by the way.

Here’s another page that, when we saw it, we immediately assumed it was yet another story about the reopening of the Statue of Liberty. It’s the Morning Call of Allentown, Pa., circulation 108,800:

And, in fact, the opening is addressed in the pull-out box. But the story itself — and most of the visuals — are not about the reopening of the crown of the statue, but about the statue’s torch, which has remained closed since a previous terrorist attack on a nearby landmark that damaged the statue.

In 1916!

Fascinating stuff. And no, we had no idea, either. Read Morning Call reporter Frank Warner’s story here.

Perhaps this one is the most unusual approach of all the day’s most outstanding fronts — we just love this from the Syracuse (N.Y.) Post-Standard:

What better way to celebrate our nation’s birthday than to give readers a first-class lesson in local civics? This page explains, simply and briefly, what you’d have to do in order to run for the state senate.

The piece was compiled by Michelle Breidenbach of the Post-Standard. The Post-Standard circulates about 114,000 papers daily.

Very, very unusual. Very, very interesting reading. And perfectly designed, with the dramatic horizontal crop, brief chunks of text, liberal use of white space and bunting and a nice lead-in to tie it all to the holiday.

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FIREWORKS

A number of papers focused on treatments of live Friday night fireworks.

We were immediately drawn to the huge play of this photo in today’s Post-Crescent of Appleton, Wis.:

It’s certainly a huge photo, it catches the eye and we like how the photographer — Kirk Wagner — got the silhouettes of local people into the shot.

All the little text down in the bottom right bothers us, though. Not only because it intrudes on the image quite a bit, but also because it’s usually very, very difficult to reverse small text out of a four-color black. Which is what the designer would have to do here, unless a lot of Photoshop work was done to remove most of the C,M, and Y out of the picture. Which doesn’t seem appropriate for a live photo.

It looks good, though. We sure hope it printed in register and that you could read all that text. Appleton, by the way, has an average daily circulation of about 52,600.

The Star-Bulletin of Honolulu took a safer approach, running its promos down the side, its cutline across the bottom and reversing out only a nice quote by Benjamin Franklin:

The photo was by F.L. Morris. The Star-Bulletin circulates about 64,000 copies daily.

For sake of completeness we’ll show you this page from the Los Angeles Daily News (circulation 137,000). But there’s neither a credit nor a caption on this huge lede art. We’ll bet it’s a file shot:

Why use a file shot when you can run fresh art from the night before? If Honolulu and Appleton can do it, you’d think the LADN could do it.

The State newspaper of South Carolina ran fresh fireworks art, bumping the nameplate down and to the left:

Now, that’s the way you do a fireworks shot. The photo itself is by Tim Dominick.

Extra points to the State, in fact, for three sets of fireworks on the front — the photo, the serial killer roaming tiny Gaffney, S.C., and more revelations about South Carolina’s horny governor. Four sets of fireworks if you count the Palin resignation.

Our very favorite fireworks shot this year, however, was from Thursday night, in Friday’s Des Moines Register. We showed it to you yesterday.

The Chicago Tribune handled its live fireworks shot much the same way…

…as did the tabloid Chicago Sun-Times:

That’s Chris Sweda shooting the former; Scott Stewart the latter. Note how both were savvy enough to capture their town’s famous skyline in their cover shots.

Finally, we have two unusual fireworks treatments to show you.

The Tampa Tribune went with a infographical primer on fireworks — how the shapes and colors are made — by staffer David Williams:

Frankly, we’ve seen these kinds of pages before. We built one ourselves 20 years ago, in fact. We’re surprised this merits page one play.

We have to admit, though, it’s attractive. And, y’know, if it works…

A slightly better approach, we think was the one taken by the Hutchinson News of Hutchinson, Kan. The News interviewed five fireworks store operators to find out how folks can get the biggest fireworks bang for their money:

We like the content on the Hutchinson page, but the design? Not so much. It feels a little clunky. We understand the reason for the thick black bars — to separate all the small vignettes with the experts — but why use all that black at all? Your lead art isn’t fireworks, bursting against a night sky. Your lead art is a big, orange starburst behind a white headline.

We’d suggest killing the black, Playing up the hed and perhaps the art of their favorite fireworks and then running the mug shots and pullouts in grid fashion, either horizontally or vertically down the package. The story itself can stay stripped across the bottom.

To see this idea done a different way, check out Friday’s Huntsville Times:

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TRIVIA

A number of papers chose to focus on U.S. History trivia.

Great idea. Orlando used a trivia quiz to great effect last year, which we show in some of our slideshows.

The Times Herald of Port Huron, Michigan — circulation 27,700 — ran this piece which not only offered readers a trivia quiz, but also included a story telling how folks who took the quiz were embarrassed by their low scores:

That’s a great twist. The package may suffer a bit, however, from the images ghosted beneath the hole burned for the text. Why not run a flag or something up top and then let the stories ride on plain white newsprint? A nice pica or two of white space could set the package apart from the rail down the right side.

The Eagle of Reading, Pa. — circulation 64,000 — also ghosted images beneath its text, but the readability on this one doesn’t seem impaired:

We also like the lighter-colored background — thanks to the Declaration of Independence, as opposed to the darker tone a fireworks show would have brought.

We really like that skybox promo, though. Wow! That got our attention!

The Daily Press of Newport News — circulation 83,000 — started its quiz on the front and jumped inside. They used the visual gimmick of placing its centerpiece on a piece of composition notebook paper, wisely resisting the temptation to use handwritten text for the story and quiz itself:

That’s a gimmick we’ve used a number of times ourselves. It can work, if you don’t use it too often. And the Daily Press pulls it off perfectly here.

Our favorite trivia front this year, though, is probably this one, by the Tribune of Salt Lake City:

Note the warm-colored background. Note the small art — relative subtle use of file icons, compared to some of the others we’ve seen. Note the wonderful flag waving atop the package, not in the way of the story or the headline, but big enough to make a commanding presence in the sales rack.

Masterfully done, Salt Lake.

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A GALLERY OF PAGE HEDDERS

Many, many papers celebrated the day with a page header across the top, in place of a skybox, perhaps interacting with the paper’s nameplate. Or, in some cases, something a little more elaborate.

In some cases, perhaps, a little too elaborate.

A look at a few…

Many papers wisely went with a flag motif for their hedder. Now, the U.S. flag is not simple graphic: All those stars and stripes. We found that the best treatments were the simplest ones.

For example, we loved this one by San Mateo, California:

Very simple. Very dramatic. Very effective.

Bozeman, Montana, also went for simple…

…As did the Kenosha, Wis., News — circulation about 24,500:

See how effective those are?

Kansas City went for quite a bit more complexity and drama, curling around behind and in front of the nameplate:

Wonderfully done.

However, when you build treatments like this, you have to be mindful of what else is going onto your page. In the Star’s case, there’s a wonderful lede photo but it shows a lot of blue sky and fluffy white clouds. Just like the hedder treatment:

An overload of fluffy clouds, perhaps.

The Seattle Times used an unusual crop to great effect:

The Virginian-Pilot, odddly, went with what appears to be a scan of a tiny desktop-sized flag:

The Daily Herald of Everett, Wash., used a cutout of a flag to pair with a bunch of fat refers:

Orlando used a flag motif, but went vector…

…As did the Sun Herald of Biloxi, Miss., which added vintage art for effect:

The Forum of Fargo, N.D., used similar art, but mixed the colors a little differently:

And the Tribune Eagle of Cheyenne, Wyo, saw those bets by Orlando, Biloxi and Fargo and raised them quite a bit:

No offense to our friends out west, but we thought this was way too much. Nicely-rendered. But no need to go all-in, if you know what we mean.

We found two papers inserting images into their nameplates. The News-Herald of Willoughby, Ohio, inserted a photo of a flag…

…And the Record-Journal of Meriden, Conn., inserted a star field:

Compare those to, say, any of the first three or four flag hedders we showed you. See how simpler is much better?

A number of papers went with fireworks motifs above the nameplate. A very nice job by the Santa Rosa Press Democrat:

The Newark Star-Ledger managed to capture quite a few more bursts.

What a lively hedder this makes!

The Star News of Wilmington, N.C., went subtle with its hedder. It might have been very effective, were it not for the paper’s new reversed nameplate:

The Houston Chronicle cropped theirs very thinly and reversed a lot of text out of it. We’re wondering how that white type fared against all the bright red and yellow:

The News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C., avoided any readability issues with white text on a black background by fading around the firework burst. We think they’d have been better off risking the reverse:

And Tyler, Texas, avoided issues by using vector fireworks bursts, rather than photos:

It’s a lot easier to control text on a vector image than on a raster image like a photo or photoillustration.

A number of papers went in another direction today entirely.

The folks in Lockport, N.Y., went with a photomontage: Fireworks, a flag, a bald eagle and the Statue of Liberty. Plus, very thin, decorative text reversed out of rich blue:

We hope their presses kept all this in register. Again, we’d have advised a simpler approach.

The Deseret News of Salt Lake City, too, squeezed a little too much across the top of their page:

Just a little busy, guys.

The Daily News of Naples, Fla., definitely went simple:

Too simple, perhaps?

Spokane, Wash., also went simple, celebrating the Fourth with a vintage-looking gimmick font…

…Which we’d normally advise against. However, this one appeals to us.

Akron, Ohio, scored nicely with this Declaration of Independence treatment:

Again, a gimmick font works well. This time.

Johnson City, Tenn., didn’t fare so well with its gimmick font hedder, we fear…

…Nor did the folks down the road in Murfreesboro, Tenn.:

And while we’re huge fans of the 33,000-circulation paper in Victoria, Texas, we felt like today’s hedder was way, way too busy:

Three fonts, an embedded flag, promos and fireworks in the background, all photoshopped around the nameplate. It’s best to keep the top of A1 quite a bit cleaner, we feel.

Finally, The Columbus Dispatch went with Lady Liberty herself:

We feel like the Dispatch went one step too far here, however. Go with the head or with the torch. Using both here seemed odd — especially since the torch seems oddly out of place in relation to the head.

Also, the greens don’t match. If you’re going to do this, you have to play with the tones in the photos to make the foreground colors match better. Perhaps it looked better in print than it does as a jpeg.

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A QUICK MENTION OF SARAH PALIN FRONTS

The best Sarah Palin treatment we saw today was by the San Jose Mercury News. While everyone else ran headlines you could predict — Palin unexpectedly resigns; GOP wonders what’s next and so on — the Merc focused on the first thing that popped into our minds when we heard the news Friday: Why?

And a nicely-organized July 4th package, to boot. Great job, Merc.

And while we’re on the subject of Palin, we can’t resist noting the similarity in the big heds of the two large New York City tabloids:

Low-hanging fruit, fellas. Try harder next time.

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BUT WHAT ABOUT ROCK HILL?

We told you a couple of weeks ago about our former paper in Rock Hill, S.C., that ran a survey to ask readers which predesigned full-page front page flag treatment they’d prefer to see on A1 today.

But, as you might recall, the Herald wisely warned its readers that, if news broke on Friday, July 3, they might have to yank the page and run something else instead.

So guess what happened in Rock Hill yesterday. Anybody?

Both photos were taken by our good friend Andy Burriss. Smoke could even be seen in Charlotte, more than 20 miles away, the story says. The fire was still not out as of midnight Friday.

An editor’s note at the bottom of the page says:

To honor our country’s birthday, The Herald intended to feature a full-page photo of the American flag on today’s 1A. We had designed four options for 1A and asked readers to pick their favorite page. But because of our coverage of Friday’s Bleachery fire, we will publish the winning page Sunday, July 12.

So to our friends in Rock Hill:

1. Kudos for a terrific front. Running Andy’s aerial shot six columns was definitely the right thing to to do. Talk about a commanding rack presence today!

2. Great job on the story. But, then again, Andrew Dys always does a great job. Does that guy ever sleep?

3. Great job by not only ditching your wonderful July 4 plan, but also by giving yourself an escape clause in the original interactive plan.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 4th, 2009 at 5:13 pm and is filed under News design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.