Charles Apple

A man fled a burning apartment Monday in Basel, Switzerland. He was found perched on a window ledge, naked, by firefighters.

…And, unfortunately for the man, a photographer for Blick, a 275,000- circulation daily newspaper.

The Associated Press reports:

Worse, from the man’s point of view, Blick printed the photograph on Tuesday and quoted Markus Melzl from the Basel prosecutor’s office as saying the apartment was used for the sex business.

The photo ran on page one. And, for what it’s worth, the man wasn’t the only naked person on A1 Tuesday. I’ve “fixed” this page to make it a little safer for those of you at work:

Click here for an unaltered version.

Blick posted the raw (heh) photos themselves:

Blick reports:

Although yesterday the whole of Switzerland knows his butt, he is relieved: “Fortunately no one has seen my face!” His biggest concern is: “I hope nobody in my family recognizes my ass.”

Find Blick’s story — in German — and a photo gallery here.

(And thanks to Ernie Smith and Kathryn Morton for the translation tip. I had no idea folks in Switzerland spoke German. Which explains why Google Translate wouldn’t give me the option today to translate out of “Swiss.”)

Scott Stoddard of the San Antonio Express News writes today:

I was recently in Munich and ran across this billboard for Die Zeit. The big type translates roughly to “What now, dear parents?”

I don’t speak much German but I believe the story was about problem children. Certainly stops you in your tracks.

Ha! Boy, does it ever!

As far as I can tell — with the help of Google Translate — the billboard plugs a free special section that inserted in the Feb. 25 edition of Die Zeit. The section aimed to answer 55 questions parents might have.

Sure enough, it’s a very clever way of getting our attention. But can you imagine the howls of protest of an American newspaper used art like this — in the paper or on a billboard?

Looks to me like she’s ready for driver’s ed…

It’s Day Three of newspaper coverage of the aftermath of the huge earthquake in Chile. And already, we’re seeing a lot of the same images, over and over, on the fronts of newspapers all over the world posted at the Newseum.

Does the news media not have adequate access to the regions struck hardest? Is the damage not as great as what we saw a few weeks ago in Haiti? Or are the world’s newspapers simply weary of running earthquake damage photos as lead art on page one?

I’ll restrain myself today and show you only 17 front pages from the U.S. and Latin America, starting with the two dailies in Chile.

El Mercurio of Santiago ran a large picture today of armed personnel vehicles patrolling around the central business district of Concepción, where heavy looting has taken place:

Reports say 10,000 troops have been called up to stop the kind of looting we saw on Monday’s front pages. The photo is by Mario Quilodrán — presumably of the el Mercurio staff.

The other big daily in Santiago — La Tercera — ran an even more dramatic photo of the same scene, shot by Claudio Santana of Agence France-Presse:

O Globo of Rio de Janerio, Brazil, used that same photo to great effect:

The Los Angeles Times led with a five-column photo of a store in Constitucion that had been reduced to rubble:

The picture was by Times staffer Michael Robinson Chavez. The LAT circulates 657,467 copies daily.

Comércio of Franca, Brazil, turned this nice picture by Claudio Santana of AFP into a poster-like front:

Hoy of Quito, Ecuador, featured a picture from EFE of a man picking through debris in Dichato, which was smashed by both the quake and a tsunami:

Boats strewn across the countryside seemed to be the big picture of the day. This picture — also taken in Dichato — is by Natacha Pisarenko of the Associated Press:

The paper, of course, is the Miami Herald, circulation 162,260.

I’m unclear where this photo was taken. The markings on the boat are the same as in the Miami Herald photo, so I’ll guess Dichato as well:

That’s La Hora of Quito, Ecuador. There is neither a credit nor a caption for the picture. The deck notes that the body of an Ecuadorian national killed in the quake cannot be returned because of health issues.

Here’s a shocking image, also from the AP and shot in the port city of Talcahuano. It shows a man armed with a rifle, standing guard on the roof of a building. Behind him, you can see cargo containers that had been tossed around as if they were shoeboxes:

That’s el Universal of Caracas, Venezuela.

This photo by the AP’s Natacha Pisarenko of a Talcahuano street littered with debris, cars and a good-sized boat was used by a number of papers in the U.S., where an AP story that focused on the tsunami angle was a popular choice for A1 today.

Here is the Advocate of Baton Rouge, La., circulation 87,881…

…the Sacramento (Calif.) Bee, circulation 217,545…

…and the Times of Seattle, Wash., circulation 263,588:

As you can see, each of the three gave large, dramatic play to the picture.

I’m not quite sure where the picture on the front of the Jornal do Commercio of Recife, Brazil, was shot:

The caption says, according to Google Translate:

Drama: Still upside down, Chile seems far away to regain normalcy. When night falls, the hungry invade stores in search of food and water.

The picture is by Martin Bernetti of Agence France-Presse.

The Washington Post led page one today with a generous four-column photo of residents in Concepción pulling water from a drainage ditch. There is no drinkable water there, the caption says:

The photo is from Reuters. Average daily circulation for the Post is 582,844.

I pulled this next page specifically to show aid getting out. Slowly, but surely, it’s trickling into Chile. Unless I’m mistaken, this headline says Now, Yes:

The picture is neither captioned nor credited. Perú.21 is based in Lima, Peru.

But then I found this photo — obviously at the same time — on the front of the Free Lance-Star of Fredericksburg, Va., circulation 46,672:

Yet another picture by the AP’s Natacha Pisarenko, the caption says:

Residents reach to catch merchandise thrown from a market being looted in Concepcion, Chile, yesterday.

Sigh. Oh, well. Perhaps we’ll see pictures of relief efforts on the front of Wednesday’s papers.

At least someone in Chile received some help Monday. Here is today’s Gazette of Colorado Springs:

Isn’t that a great picture? Please click for a larger view:

It’s credited to only “AP.”

Average daily circulation for the Gazette is 93,859.

So, have you wondered just what the tsunami looked like Saturday when it washed over Hawaii?

Greg Holzman took the photos below of his son on a dock in Kikiaola Bay on Kaua’i island, after the all-clear was given but as the waves rolled in.

It apparently seemed like the tide was coming in and out all afternoon. Of course, it wasn’t the tide at all. It was the tsunami waves, which Holzman measured at about four feet, four inches. These pictures were taken about four minutes apart:

These pictures ran on the front of the daily Garden Island of Kaua’i, Hawaii, Monday morning:

Meanwhile, far more serious matters faced quake-stricken Chile. Here is the front of today’s El Mercurio of Santiago:

The main picture of the soldiers — sent in to stop the heavy looting reportedly going on — is by the Associated Press. More about that looting shortly.

The other big daily in Santiago — La Tercera — used a huge picture of homes in Pelluhue, southwest of Santiago, that were stricken first by the quake and then by the tsunami. The picture — and so many others I’ll show you today — was taken by Robert Candia of the Associated Press:

Equally shocking is the secondary art of the looter being held at gunpoint.

Many papers used that same AP picture of the mud-covered town today. Here is El Universo of Guayaquil, Ecuador:

It’s an awesome photo. Note how the designers are smart enough to run it large and get out of its way.

This is El Colombiano of Medellín, Colombia:

And a number of U.S. papers used it as well. Representing those is the Courier-Journal of Louisville, Ky., circulation 176,638:

The damage in the town of Pelluhue made particularly good A1 photos today. Consider this moving shot of a child surveying what’s left of his mud-covered village:

The picture is by Ivan Alvarado of Reuters. The paper is the Diário of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The Los Angeles Times — circulation 657,467 — built its front page around that same picture…

…as did El Universal of Caracas, Venezuela:

The aforementioned Robert Candia of the Associated Press also sent pictures of folks wandering through the rubble of Pelluhue. This one was used to good effect by the Star of Ventura, Calif., circulation 86,276:

Same photographer, same location, different newspaper. This is the Times-Dispatch of Richmond, Va., circulation 133,161:

One of my favorite pictures of the day is this one by Candia of a man holding up a Chilean flag. Or, rather, what’s left of one:

That’s el Nuevo Dia of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The same picture was selected as lead art by the Miami Herald, circulation 162,260…

…and the Republican-American of Waterbury, Conn., circulation 50,903:

Here’s an AP photo of folks picking through debris in the town of Pelluhue, used by Los Tiempos of Cochabamba, Bolivia:

Here’s a particularly surreal shot on the front of Express, the commuter tab published by the Washington Post:

The picture is by Martin Mbernett of Getty Images. Average daily circulation for Express is 183,916.

Here’s another AP photo — this one was taken in Talcahuano. The paper is the Journal of Winston-Salem, N.C., circulation 81,930:

O Globo of Rio de Janerio, Brazil, built its page one around this wonderful photo by Jose Luis Saavedra of Reuters:

Note the dog on the roof of the house on the right. This was the city of Diachato, of which 80 percent was reportedly destroyed.

I’m unclear which city this is on the front of Diario de Pernambuco of Recife, Brazil, but you can see the tsunami washed boats onto the shore:

And, a few papers showed us the apartment building snapped in half in Concepción that many papers had put out front on Sunday. I’m not sure these pictures by Rafael Vallejos of EFE told us anything different today, other than perhaps having a closer angle.

Here is Pioneiro of Caxias do Sul, Brazil…

…and here is Diário Catarinense of Florianópolis, Brazil:

A few papers focused on rescue efforts. Here are workers breaking through a wall in Concepción:

The photo is by Daniel Garcia of AFP. The paper is Correio Braziliense of Brasilia, Brazil.

And here is an AP photo of workers lifting a deceased victim out of a building, also in Concepción. The paper is the Times of St. Petersburg, Fla., circulation 240,147:

El Universal of Mexico City attempted something risky: Instead of lead art, it placed three horizontal photos on A1, hoping the entire unit would serve as a visual centerpiece:

And, y’know, they pulled it off. Quite well, too. If I understand the photo credits properly, two of the three pictures are by El Universal staffers, too — some of the few staff photos I’ve seen so far come out of Chile.

Many newspapers chose to focus on the looting going on in the aftermath of the quake. And, unfortunately, the looting was widespread enough so that photographers had no shortage of subjects to shoot; designers had no shortage of looting art from which to choose.

This picture from EFE shows looters in a store in Concepción:

That is el Espectador of Bogata, Colombia. The same photo was chosen by La Nacion of Buenos Aires, Argentina:

Here’s a similar photo — also in Concepción — shot by EFE’s Geraldo Caso and used by Hoy of Quito, Ecuador:

Folha of Sao Paulo, Brazil chose that same picture:

More looting, also in Concepción:

That is Clarín of Buenos Aires. The picture is from Telam.

I’m going to take a wild guess here and say Concepción happens to be where photographers were assigned to shoot looting art. It strains my imagination to think the only looting was happening in that one city.

This next looting lead art is blurry and uncredited:

LaHora of Quito, Ecuador chose to play its lead art at the bottom of the page, as opposed to a more traditional top-of-the-page.

Here is Perú.21 of Lima, also using an uncredited photo of looters with groceries:

El Territorio of Posadas, Argentina, also used looter art from Telam. The immediacy in this one — there’s some blurring but we can still see the the faces of the fleeing looters — makes it my favorite looter photo of the day:

I’ll close today with my former paper, the Herald of Rock Hill, S.C., circulation 30,848. I love the headline here, which captures the ying/yang feel of these disasters:

Go here to find my roundup of Sunday’s earthquake and tsunami front pages from the U.S. and Latin America.

Earlier today, I posted my final critique of Winter Olympics fronts. Find that here.

The China Daily — the largest English-language daily and China and known to many of us as the paper that hired Bill Gaspard a few weeks ago — launched a redesign today.

A before-and-after look at page one (click anything today for a larger view):

A story posted on the papers’ web site explains there will now be a daily in-depth “cover story,” with which…

…we aim to set the news agenda instead of just follow it. Our talented team of roving reporters will bring you the voices from the heart of the action, while our exclusive interviews with key policymakers offer a broader understanding of the motivation behind the decisions.

Here’s the jump page for today’s cover feature, Gold Standard:

Creative director Jonah Kessel tells us:

This redesign has been a very interesting experience. In some ways, the issues we face in China are much different than in the West; other issues seem to be universal.

Last night I asked Bill Gaspard at 3 a.m. to rate “the pain” involved in this redesign, compared to other projects he has been involved with. Beer in hand, with a smile on his face, he said, “about an 8.”

While monetary issues don’t necessarily make the top of our worry list here, many more people have eyes on what we do. Normally, we try to meet the needs and wants of our readers and publishers; but, here we are trying to meet the needs of our editors, publishers, government officials, a diverse expatriate population, a Chinese population — all while trying to push forward in the notion of a free press. Its a very tricky task, a very difficult task and at times, a very fun task.

Back to the paper’s news story:

One of the major aesthetic changes is the nameplate, which is based on the color of the original 1981 nameplate. The “Futura” font is a modern and bold new version, while the original handwritten Chinese characters were kept as a symbol of China Daily’s 28-year evolution from a newspaper to an international multimedia group.

The nameplate was introduced to readers last week via a four-page wrap, Jonah says.

This was a little different than anything I had done before. I had this idea of “Hollywooding” the new nameplate into the Great Wall about 4-months ago when I started this project. It took a couple trips to the Great Wall to get the right image, but eventually I found the right light.

Here are before-and-after looks at the new editorial page…

…the new features page…

…and the new sports page:

Big changes are in store for a small zoned insert. The paper reports:

Metro Beijing, inserted into the flagship edition for the Beijing market, will expand from four pages to eight, making the Beijing edition a 32-page daily. Serving millions of international readers who arrive in the capital city every year, this section combines news reporting with service information.

The paper reports:

This model will eventually be replicated in Shanghai and Guangdong, providing more localized content for each metropolitan market.

Go here to read the paper’s story explaining its own redesign. Find a second story and video here. Find a letter here from editor Zhu Ling.

Find Jonah Kessel’s blog here.