Turning the world on its ear in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin
This page caught my eye today at the Newseum, for the obvious reason (Click for a larger view):
Papers might sometimes turn an inside page on its side, but rarely page on. Note how the shot of the teacher and her class — above the fold — is tilted slightly to the right, as well. That becomes a bit of a visual tipoff to the reader that we’re about to enter the visual Twilight Zone here.
The paper is the Fond du Lac Reporter, circulation 14,000. It’s one of several small Wisconsin dailies owned by Gannett.
Executive editor and general manager Richard Roesgen told us a little about this page:
The credit goes to Copy Editor and front-page designer Gary Clausius. We had discussed in our daily news meeting how best to display the photo, and we more or less had settled on 5 or 6 columns from left to right across the page.
But then Gary came up with the sideways idea. He showed it to [managing editor Mike Mentzer], who showed it to me, and all I said was, “Cool, great idea, let’s do it.” And Gary took it from there. Gary designs most of our front pages and they always have a deft and dynamic look.
Here’s the photo itself, turned right-side-up for your viewing pleasure. Click for a larger view:
Photojournalist Justin Connaher tells us:
I did stitch together nine individual images, as you suspected. The hallway in which this mural is located is narrow and the work is approximately 50 feet in length making a traditional photo, even with a fisheye, impossible. We have used this technique once before in the past five years, if I remember correctly.
Talk about your extensive Photoshop work! Yet, I don’t see this as a problem at all — as long as the manipulation made clear to the reader.
And the Reporter did this — both in the caption and in the credit:
When I asked specifically about this wording, Justin replied:
In the interest of full disclosure to our readership I wanted to make it clear that this image was a composite of many images, and not a single frame or exposure. The last thing we would want would be to ethically mislead readers, and “multiexposure” seemed to be a description which most clearly and concisely let the public know that.
This is only the second front page I’ve added to my collection showing a sideways element. The other ran in another Gannett paper — the Des Moines Register — five years ago, about a year after I left there for Virginia:
This is a daring thing to do. But, as always, if you a) make what you’re doing clear to your readers, b) serve the content — the map or the photo or the story — well, and c) make it interesting and fun, then you might have a winner on your hands.
The Fond du Lac Reporter did all these things today. Plus, it managed to do all this without seriously fouling up its above-the-fold presentation, which might adversely affect the way it looks in a newsrack.
Richard writes:
The Reporter has been known for a lot of creative front-page designs over the years. The starting point for that approach was to create more compelling above-the-fold front pages, to foster more community interest and excitement about the news, in particular to target younger or more casual readers and to drive more single-copy sales. Most of our designs have worked well, and it certainly makes for a refreshing daily product.
It’s nice to know that newspaper readers in Wisconsin are in good hands.