Charles Apple

I was absolutely delighted to find a message in my in-basket this morning from a reader in Australia. He’s not a newspaper designer, though — he’s an associate pastor of a church!

Anyway, he writes:

My name’s Luke Nelson and I’m a big newspaper design fan — so I love your blog!

I thought you might be interested in this clever front page I spotted at Newseum today.

Over here in Australia, the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has just been ousted by his own party, with Julia Gillard becoming our nation’s first female leader.  She’s famous for having red hair — which inspired this page:

This is the Illawarra Mercury of Wollongong:

Luke continues:

I don’t know if you have them in the States, but there’s a famous matchstick company called Redheads, with this iconic image:

I like how they’ve reworked it — and the ‘reignite’ line was a nice touch too.

Thanks much for the note, Luke. That is indeed brilliantly clever work by the folks in New South Wales. And I’d very likely have missed it without your tip.

Naturally, I can’t travel to the Aussie section of the Newseum without checking out other front pages covering the historic change of government down under.

The finest portrait of the day was this one used by the West Australian of Perth:

Look at that refer. Twenty pages of news and analysis on this story. Oh, how I wish Americans would read twenty pages of political news and analysis.

The Courier Mail of Brisbane also produced a very nice front using a flattering portrait of the new prime minister:

The Sydney Morning Herald led with a picture of Julia Gillard with the country’s governor-general — basically, the Queen’s representative in Australia — Quentin Bryce:

The Financial Review — also of Sydney — used the same photo:

From the city of Townsville comes this photoilustration for the cover of the Bulletin:

This page has a couple of problems, I think. Firstly, the designer used a nice quote from the new PM promising to work hard for her country. However, the designer packaged that quote atop the mug shot of the outgoing minister. Visually, it looks like the quote is attributed to him.

The second problem is a little tougher to solve. On a day in which Australia saw its first female prime minister sworn into office, I find it odd that the same front pages promotes a cheesecake souvenir poster inside:

Perhaps the paper might have held off a day or two for this promotion.

The Herald Sun of Melbourne focused on the outgoing PM:

And the Border Mail of Albury-Wodonga offered perhaps the most elaborate visual coverage of all: A wrap-around cover that featured a nice portrait of the prime minister on the front…

…and man-on-the-street quotes about the change of government on the back. Click that for a readable view.

Oh, Ryan Huddle. You and your peeps at the Victoria Advocate done it again.

You’ve given us a faux Prophet edition to tie in with a Harry Potter movie and you’ve given us a working game board that looks back on the 1980s. You even gave us an online musical for Halloween.

But now your little paper — a 33,549-circulation daily in Victoria, Texas, roughly equidistant from San Antonio, Houston and Corpus Christi — has given us the definitive treatment for the new teenage vampire flick Eclipse. A good five days before the movie even opens.

You wrote last night:

I thought I would give you the first look at our Twilight special M3.

…M3 being your weekly entertainment section, with which you’ve had so much fun in the past. You continued:

We did the section this week because we the movie releases on Wednesday, June 30 and our entertainment tab doesn’t hit the curbs until Friday. And I just hate to be behind on the news.

Plus, if we are handing it out at the movie like we have done in the past, we had to do it a little early.

That sounds like a good plan, Ryan. Interest among the teen bloodsucking set is high. My wife and daughter already have tickets in hand for a midnight showing next Tuesday.

As opposed to the tab pages you usually send me, though, you sent me lavishly photoillustrated, ginormous doubletruck graphics. Here are what you called pages one and eight (with your M3 nameplate there on the right)…

…and here is what you called pages three and six:

Naturally, you can click on either of these for a larger view.

You wrote:

I tried something I have never done before: To combine four broadsheet pages to make a giant poster. When the two pieces are combined, the ribbon acts like a guide to a Who’s Who of vampires.

And, sure enough, dude, it does:

You continued:

Aprill wrote all the stories but one, since the Associated Press was a little slow on moving any stories about Eclipse. She wrote them in her normal brilliant fashion for the issue, so she is a little tired right now.

Ryan, you’re on the right in this picture. Your cute, comics-fanboy-dream-of-a-wife Aprill Brandon is on the left. But you probably knew that.

Here was one more page you sent — this one tied in to HBO’s Real Blood TV series. Again, Ryan, you can click for a larger view:

You continued:

All the normal stuff [calendar items, for example] is in the section, too.

And I just found out the pressroom is going to print it on high bright paper. That should look good.

If you’d like to download readable PDFs of, y’know, your own pages, Ryan, click here. Aprill’s stuff is a scream so it’s definitely worth a look.

You’ve sent me so much cool stuff that I finally had to create a blog category just for you, called Victoria Advocate. You can find it there in that right-side rail. Or you can just click here.

Truly, Ryan, you guys rock. You rock so much, in fact, that you have me writing in the second person. And that’s just weird.

I wrote about this the other day, but tomorrow is the day it’s publishing: An all-Portuguese four-page pullout section wrapped around Friday’s Mercury of Durban, South Africa.

Why Portuguese? Because World Cup matches are being played in town. Luck of the draw happens to have Portugal and Brazil facing off Friday at Moses Mabhida Stadium in the port city of Durban.

And, as I’m sure you know, they speak Portuguese — not Spanish — in Brazil.

All the Portuguese-speaking visitors pouring into town provided the Mercury with a unique opportunity, editor Angela Quintal told us. It’s all an extension of the Mercury’s “twinning” project.

Angela wrote earlier tonight:

It’s a wrap.

What can I say? One long day, but great fun and a great atmosphere in The Mercury newsroom.

Quite a challenge to produce a special commemorative four-page wrap in Portuguese, but we did it.

Thanks to our colleagues from various Portuguese and Brazilian media who arrived at our offices for interviews about famous Portuguese poets with roots in Durban, and to find out more about our special edition, etc, and stayed to help with proofing pages, suggesting headlines, etc.

A story on the Mercury ’s web site reported Thursday:

The initiative caught the eye of journalists from Portugal and Brazil who unexpectedly immersed themselves in the newsroom today (Thursday). They came in search of an unusual news angle were soon assisting with subbing, and proofing pages. A huge relief for local Durban businessman John de Gouveia who was the chief translator for the entire project.

Left to right, those are sub-editor Karen Louw, Durban
businessman John de Gouveia and Lisbon radio station
guy Ricardo Oliveira Duarte.
—

Among those in the newsroom to report on the souvenir wrap were Ricardo Oliveira Duarte, from Lisbon radio station TSF, and Nuno Trajassos, of a Lisbon-based website More Soccer. They literally rolled up their sleeves and helped with production.

Then the Brazilians arrived, and not to be outdone, did their bit too. Candido Silva and Tiago Capixaba gave the Brazilian flourish to the pages, so that tomorrow The Mercury can not be accused of taking side.

In addition, the project received a lot of publicity of its own:

Duarte is interviewed by TV journalist Claudia Lopes on
Thursday during production of the Portuguese-language
wrap. Both photos are from the Durban Mercury.
—

So here is tomorrow’s wrap section, including a nicely illustrated page topper by chief A1 designer Greg Hutson (Click, of course, for a larger view):

The main headline says:

A game of dreams

Either side of the main centerpiece features a story from sportswriters in the countries: at Folha de S.Paulo and Público. The pieces downpage are fans writing about fans.

Here’s a closer look at the cartoon in the lowermost right:

Angela Quintal explains for us:

For non-football fans, the cartoon relates to Kaka and [Cristiano] Ronaldo, who are the stars of the Brazilian and Portuguese teams, respectively. They both play for Real Madrid in Spain. Jose Mourinho recently joined the club as the new coach. Mourinho is a celebrity in his own right. He refers to himself as “the special one”.

Ronaldo and Kaka are on the beach watching how Mourinho is getting all the attention. A dejected Ronaldo turns to Kaka and says:

Do you realise that when we return to the Bernabeu (Real Madrid’s stadium), we’ll no longer be the special ones.

Page two of the wrap is heavy on features. The centerpiece story is about the muses who inspire us (again, click for a larger view):

The story on the left is a history of Portuguese influence on soccer in South Africa. On the right is a story titled “Who are the champions?”

The right-side inside page is led with a story called “Footprints in Durban,” about the Portuguese influence there (this, too, is clickable):

The stories in the three pastel-colored boxes on the right appears to be greetings from area officials. The story across the bottom, apparently, is about the man who designed this year’s World Cup logo (which I insulted a while back, I’m afraid).

The back page of the wrap is anchored by a nice map and instructions on what to do if you’re in town for only 24 hours (click for a larger view):

The best translation I can get for the story on the left is:

Better than Ipanema

The ‘belezaas’ Durban are … beautiful!

I spent quite a bit of time staring at the photo, hoping to improve that translation. No such luck.

Angela explains again:

The pic is a play on the Girls of Ipanema, and we’re saying Roxy — voted the sexiest woman in SA and who is in Durban for the surfing — is better than the girls from Ipanema.

The story across the bottom is a guide to South African slang.

Now, keep in mind that’s a four-page Portuguese-language pull-off wrap. Here is the Mercury’s actual front page for Friday, featuring Slovakia’s enormously entertaining 3-1 win over Italy today in Johannesburg (click, of course):

And that’s today’s Durban Mercury. Thanks much to editor Angela Quintal for sharing with us.

Download PDFs of the Durban wrap here.

Find the Mercury’s own story about the Portuguese wrap here. Read up on the Mercury’s “twinning” project here.

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While we’re on the subject of South African newspapers, I’d like to point out that Gill Moodie of Grub Street has rounded up — and critiqued — a bunch of front pages from South African papers I’ve not yet found online. Find her blog here.

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Are you doing anything interesting for the World Cup? Send me PDFs, please.

Previous World Cup coverage, here in the blog:

• Sunday, June 6: Preparing readers for the World’s Cup
• Monday, June 7: Monday’s World Cup pages
• Wednesday, June 8: World Cup pages from South Africa
• Thursday, June 9: Talking soccer graphics with Konstantinos Antonopoulos
• Thursday, June 9: Tooting horns for the World Cup
• Friday, June 10: Opening day pages
• Saturday, June 11: The front page of Saturday’s Johannesburg paper
• Saturday, June 11: The most fun I’ve seen yet on a World Cup page
• Sunday, June 12: U.S. Cup fronts after the tie with England weren’t so gracious
• Wednesday, June 16: More Cup pages from South Africa and around the world
• Friday, June 18: The Mercury of Durban, South Africa, and its stunning “twinning” project
• Saturday, June 19: Advance pages and graphics from South Africa’s Sunday national papers Rapport and City Press
• Saturday, June 19: World Cup pages from Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
• Tuesday, June 22: An international competition in which to enter your World Cup presentations
• Tuesday, June 22: Front pages from South Africa and the world
• Thursday, June 24: U.S. papers celebrate big ‘overtime’ win (and world papers)