Charles Apple

I thought I’d do something a little different today. In honor of yesterday’s opening round of the NCAA basketball tournament, I’ll show you today’s front pages — as collected by the Newseum — head-to-head, with the hometown paper of each opposing team competing with each other for a day-after rematch.

Except instead of dunks and three-pointers, I’ll judge them on how each paper stuck the landing. So to speak.

Click anything I show you today for a slightly larger view…

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MIDWEST REGIONAL

No. 1 Kansas 90
No. 16 Lehigh 74

Yes, that’s an amusing sign the Kansas fan is holding up. And it’s a very nice page — I love the use of white space there. However, an action shot will trump a fan photo nearly every time. The one afront Allentown has an awkward crop, but it works very well with the headline. Count this as a win for Lehigh.

Left: The Topeka (Kansas) Capital-Journal, circulation 44,864. Lead photo by Ann Williamson, staff.

Right: The Morning Call of Allentown, Pa., circulation 100,617. Lead photo by Tony Guitierrez, Associated Press.

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No. 9 Northern Iowa 69
No. 8 UNLV 66

Northern Iowa surprised a lot of folks — including me — with a nice win over UNLV Thursday. But Las Vegas earns a bit of revenge today in newsprint.

Normally, I hate after-the-game locker-room shots. I loathe them. To me, it’s as if we’re telling our readers: Yeah, we went to the game. But we spent most of it at the concession stand. So here’s a picture of the aftermath.

But man, look at those poor, dejected players here. That’s a wonderful picture. And the Las Vegas paper plays it perfectly, meaning: The designer ran it at four-and-a-half columns and then got the hell out of its way.

So it’s a three-point win for Las Vegas.

Left: Sioux City (Iowa) Journal, circulation 38,740. Photo by the Associated Press.

Right: Las Vegas Review-Journal, circulation 175,841. Photo by staffer John Locher.

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No. 6 Tennessee 62
No. 11 San Diego State 59

Tennessee earned a nice first-round win over San Diego State Thursday, but you’d never know it from looking at page one. It’s up there, just below the nameplate. But the promo shares space with… Zounds! Spring Football training has begun!

So it’s an easy win for San Diego, which used a very nice, three-column photo as lead art today.

Left: News Sentinel of Knoxville, Tenn., circulation 99,733.

Right: Union-Tribune of San Diego, circulation 242,705. Photo by Jim Rogash, Getty Images.

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No. 14 Ohio 97
No. 3 Georgetown 83

I had difficulty finding a page from Ohio that could go up against this brilliant photo on the front of today’s Washington Post. Originally, I resorted to using the Ohio University front page. But then I was tipped off by a former student editor that the OU paper wasn’t publishing this week, which is finals week. The page I posted here earlier today was from last week’s MAC championship win over Akron. D’oh!

Since I pulled my pages this morning, however, I see this one from the Columbus Dispatch has made its way into the Newseum. So although it’s only a skybox promo, it’s a very nice skybox promo. The little yellow detail work around the player’s head is a great touch. And the headline is perfect.

It doesn’t quite overcome that Post photo, however. A win for Washington.

Right: The Washington Post, circulation 582,844. Photo by staffer Jonathan Newton.

Left: The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, circulation 183,742.

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WEST REGIONAL

No. 5 Butler 77
No. 12 UTEP 59

By no stretch of the imagination is Indianapolis’ photo brilliant. But it does show emotion and movement. Meanwhile, El Paso used an interesting losing UTEP facepalm picture as the lead item in a rail, where it gets lost.

A win for Indy.

Left: The Indianapolis Star, circulation 201,823. Photo by staffer Sam Riche.

Right: El Paso Times, circulation 72,027. Photo special to the Times by Brian Kanoff.

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No. 13 Murray State 66
No. 4 Vanderbilt 65

I couldn’t find anyone in the vicinity of Murray, Ky., who played up poor Murray State. Which pulled off the upset of a lifetime Thursday. But then I stumbled upon a small paper in California, 2,000 miles away. Its brilliant, top-of-the-page treatment of a horizontal celebration shot easily trumps the armpit picture used by Nashville.

Win: Murray. By Californian proxy, Dude.

Left: The Tribune of San Luis Obispo, Calif., circulation 35,885.

Right: The Tennessean of Nashville, circulation 131,960. Lead photo by Paul Sakuma, Associated Press.

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No. 7 Brigham Young 99
No. 10 Florida 92
2OT

This was another gimme.

Hardly anyone in the Citrus State put the Gators out front — And UF’s hometown paper, the Gainesville Sun, was a no-show at the Newseum today.

Therefore, representing Florida is Jacksonville. Find the Gator presence in the second black line of the grey box: Gators fade in first round.

Meanwhile, Salt Lake did its usual bang-up job. A big win for the folks in Utah.

Left: The Salt Lake Tribune, circulation 112,585. Lead photo by Jim Urquhart, staff.

Right: The Florida Times-Union of Jacksonville, circulation 109,476.

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No. 2 Kansas State 82
No. 15 North Texas 62

I also had difficulty finding a paper that could represent K-State. Wichita gave the Wildcats a better ride than anyone — and that was merely with this shared skyline.

Meanwhile, the fans in Denton’s main photo don’t look very excited. Still, Denton’s play was much more impressive than Wichita’s. Advantage North Texas.

Left: The Wichita Eagle, circulation 82,912.

Right: Denton (Texas) Record-Chronicle, circulation 13,209. Fan photo by staffer David Menton; action shot by Tony Guitierrez of the Associated Press.

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EAST REGIONAL

No. 1 Kentucky 100
No. 16 East Tennessee State 71

Johnson City put their hometown boys in a tiny ear in the upper right and nearly obscured the cutout photo with the nameplate. Not surprisingly, the Herald-Leader blew out Kentucky all over page one.

This contest was about as much of a tossup as the actual game.

Left: Lexington Herald-Leader, circulation 99,707. Lead photo by Charles Bertram, staff.

Right: Johnson City (Tenn.) Press, circulation 30,670.

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No. 9 Wake Forest 81
No. 8 Texas 80

The Austin paper didn’t do much for the Texas loss, but Fort Worth ran an awesome AP photo out front. Therefore, it represents the Longhorn faithful today.

Although Wake Forest was an underdog — I think — the Journal didn’t do much with the game result today. How very strange.

A win for Fort Worth.

Left: The Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal, circulation 81,930.

Right: Fort Worth Star-Telegram, circulation 167,364. Lead photo by Jim Bazemore of the Associated Press.

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No. 11 Washington 80
No. 6 Marquette 78

Wow is right… this one just killed my bracket. That’s what I get for having faith in Marquette.

While the Times‘ big purple headline is quite nice, the emotion in Milwaukee’s lead photo gives the folks in Wisconsin a win — at least in newsprint.

Left: The Seattle Times, circulation 263,588.

Right: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, circulation 190,841. Photo by the Associated Press.

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No. 3 New Mexico 62
No. 14 Montana 57

That’s a nice little under-the-nameplate promo Billings built there. But a closer look reveals the cutout isn’t even of the home team. That’s a player from Vanderbilt, which was upset by Murray State. The loss by Montana is in the tiny black type below the blue headline.

An easy win by Albuquerque, which used nice staff art.

Left: Albuquerque Journal, circulation 94,066. Lead photo by Marla Brose, staff.

Right: Billings Gazette, circulation 42,973.

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SOUTH REGIONAL

No. 11 Old Dominion 51
No. 6 Notre Dame 50

This upset was big news for Old Dominion, located just a couple of miles from the headquarters of the Virginian-Pilot. The Pilot ran a gorgeous photo above the nameplate. South Bend went with a tiny cutout skybox.

The Pilot wins much more easily than did ODU.

For what it’s worth, I called this one correctly in my brackets. Not that it did me any good, with Georgetown and Marquette doing down…

Left: Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk, Va., circulation 164,454. Photo by staffer Preston Gannaway.

Right: South Bend (Ind.) Tribune, circulation 66,886.

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No. 3 Baylor 68
No. 14 Sam Houston State 59

It was difficult to find anybody putting poor Sam Houston out on A1 today. The best I could do was this tiny promo at the upper right of Temple, Texas, about two-and-a-half hours from Huntsville, Texas, where Sam Houston is located.

Clear win: Waco, also with nice staff art.

Left: Waco Tribune-Herald, circulation 36,708. Lead photo by staffer Duane Laverty.

Right: Temple Daily Telegram, circulation 25,000.

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No. 10 St. Mary’s 80
No. 7 Richmond 71

You have to love the Gaels of St. Mary’s, squashing the Richmond Spiders. The Contra Costa times led with excited fans watching the game on TV.

But the emotive photo on the right — and the great March Sadness headline — gives the Times-Dispatch a decisive win.

Left: Contra Costa Times of Walnut Creek, Calif., circulation 174, 852. Photos by staffer Susan Tripp.

Right: Richmond Times-Dispatch, circulation 133,161. Lead photo by Elisa Amendola, Associated Press.

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No. 2 Villanova 73
No. 15 Robert Morris 70
OT

We’ll end our day with these perfectly bookended fronts…

Close indeed — This game would have been a major bracket-busting upset had Robert Morris of Pittsburgh pulled off the win Thursday.

I like the emotion on the face of the fans watching TV, afront Pittsburgh. I also prefer the white space I see on the right, as opposed to the restrictive feel of the page on the left.

But the wonderful staff-shot game art by Philly makes the difference. Villanova wins.

Left: Philadephia Inquirer, circulation 288,298. Lead picture by staffer Ron Cortes.

Right: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, circulation 184,234. Lead photo by staffer Robin Runbach.

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This was an interesting little exercise. But here’s a heads-up: I won’t be able to do this again Saturday or Sunday. I’m on the road Saturday and then I’m teaching a session on newsletter design Sunday in D.C.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 19th, 2010 at 12:04 pm and is filed under A look at the day's fronts, News design, Photojournalism, Sports design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.