Charles Apple

For years,  I’ve called Chris Olds the best page-two man in the business. And I think Chris hates that.

Over the years, Chris made a name for himself researching, writing and designing his own centerpiece features that received prominent play on page two of the sports sections of the San Antonio Express-News and then the Orlando Sentinel.

A faux-baseball card
featuring Chris Olds.
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There’s nothing wrong with that. Page two ain’t exactly the cheap seats. You put good stuff there. But Chris always aspired to be more than “just a page two guy.”

Earlier this year, though, Orlando killed his Now You Know visual column for lack of space. So Chris put all his excess energy — and his smarts — into a sports card and memorabilia collecting blog on the Sentinel’s web site.

The blog went over big. Real big. To the point where much larger sites — such as SI.com, Deadspin, etc. — have linked regularly to his stuff. As Chris says:

My blog had 128,999 hits in July.

So it should be of no surprise to anyone that Chris is now bolting the Sentinel. He’ll be working at the Mecca for baseball card collectors: Beckett Media, which is based in Dallas. Beckett is the leading producer of sports card collecting magazines and price guides. Chris will fit in there perfectly.

And newspapers lose yet another talented soul — just the kind of visual journalist we can’t afford to lose.

Dammit.

Chris’ statement:

I have accepted a job as an editor at Beckett Media, the leading publishing house on sports cards and memorabilia, in Dallas, Texas. I’ll be blogging, writing, editing and probably a bit of everything else for their Web site and their stable of hobby-related magazines and books. My primary focus will be working on Beckett Baseball and Beckett Sports Card Monthly.

You can find their magazines in pretty much any book store in the country — and in every card shop, too.

This wasn’t a quickly decided move for me as I first re-established contact with them months ago, but they hadn’t had any opportunities arise until just recently.

I’ve been aware of their flagship magazine since 1987 — and I purchased my first copy in April 1988. (The esteemed Benito Santiago was on the cover that month.) And while the daily miracle of getting out a newspaper will always remain of interest to me, and the Orlando chapter has been a rich and interesting one, it was too much of an opportunity to pass up working for the ESPN of baseball cards. It’s a publication that I have truly grown up with (and one that probably led me into journalism, too).

A few samples of Chris’ work:

     
   

Find more in his NewsPageDesigner gallery.

Find a huge Q&A I conducted with Chris last fall here. Find Chris’ blog — for the moment, at least — here.

Read more about Beckett and its family of publications here.

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Heads up, sports designers throughout the southeast: You have a friend on the inside at a top Southeastern Conference school.

Tiffany Schwarz, who graduated from the University of Alabama last spring, is now working in ‘Bama’s sports information office.

Let no small Alabama paper ever want again for mug shots, statistics or media credentials.  Roll Tide!

Tiffany writes:

I am working in Sports Media Relations at the University of Alabama. I am designing posters, schedule cards, logos, media guides and other sports media for all 22 of our teams. I love my job!

I am really enjoying seeing how design for non-news stuff works. Right now I’m trying to bone up on skills like web design, flash and a seminar on museum direction.

While a student, Tiff was managing editor for design for the student paper, The Crimson White. She interned at the Asbury Park Press and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She was also a contestant in the first “The Intern” contest at SND/Orlando in 2006.

A few Tiff images (heh)…

See more of Tiffany’s stuff at NewsPageDesigner.

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Amazing designer, incredible illustrator and all-around nice guy Martin Gee — laid off in June by the boneheads at the San Jose Mercury News — is employed again.

Martin is the new art director for Oregon Business, a 20,000-circulation monthly magazine based in Portland. His first day will be Sept. 19.

Martin lurks with his camera at SND/
Boston. Photo by William Couch.
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A few samples of Martin’s design work:

See more here.

Here are a few examples of his illustration work:

See more here.

Find all this and a bunch more at Martin’s web site. Find his Twitter feed here.

Martin says he’ll be in Vegas next week at the SND annual workshop. Congratulate him there.

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News designer Shraddha Swaroop has left The Virginian-Pilot to return home to Southern California.

Shraddha sings karaoke in
Syracuse in February 2007.
Photo by Matt Erickson.
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Shraddha writes:

I’m fine. Fantastic, even! I don’t have anything lined up yet but the reason I am going home is [to be closer to] my parents.

I would like to do some of the things that having a career in newspapers doesn’t allow you to do! I’m excited!

And another cool by-product of this is the awesome road trip I get to take across the country.

Shraddha joined the Pilot in May of 2007 after nearly seven award-winning years as a designer and illustrator for the San Jose Mercury News.

A few samples of her work:

See more, of course, in her NewsPageDesigner gallery. Find her personal web site here.

Shraddha is also a regional director for the Society for News Design. Find her Region Two blog here.

Shraddha says she’ll be at the SND workshop in Vegas next week. When you see her, make sure to wish her well. And to offer her a job, if you’re a design manager within commuting distace of Huntington Beach.

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Anybody needing a clue as to the future direction of the big blue, look no further: RedEye editor Jane Hirt was named managing editor today of the Chicago Tribune.

Chicago Business News
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Quoting her background info from the official press release:

Before joining RedEye, Hirt was the Tribune’s foreign/national news editor. Other assignments during her 15 years at the Tribune have included the position of foreign/national copy desk chief and tours of duty on the sports and national copy desks. Hirt graduated from the University of Nebraska- Lincoln in 1989 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.

The uber-successful RedEye began publication six years ago, co-edited by Jane and Joe Knowles. Joe left a couple of years ago to become AME/Visuals for the Tribune.

Joe writes:

Jane is a creative tornado. Everyone who says newspapers are dead should hang on tight and watch her blow their socks off.

In my three years working with her at RedEye, she was locked in, every day, all day. She is a ridiculously sharp story editor with a designer’s eye for visuals. Her talent is immeasurable… I don’t know if there’s anything she can’t do. She’s even a really fast typist and has good taste in music.

Fair warning: Keep your eye on the Tribune now. Jane is a difference-maker, a game-changer for us. You’ll see what I mean soon enough.

Chris Courtney, design director of RedEye, writes:

Before landing at RedEye, the longest I ever stayed anywhere was 18 months. I’ve been here nearly 6 years now. That’s a testament to the people who make RedEye what it is and that starts with Jane Hirt. Without Jane and her former co-editor Joe Knowles (now Trib AME/Presentation) there would be no RedEye. Period. And without RedEye I’d likely be off somewhere making silly hats.

I know that people ignorant to the how things work here will assume that this move will begin the celeb-mutation of the Tribune into a clone of RedEye. However, to make that assumption that is to underestimate Jane’s ability to see that these two publications serve distinctly different missions and readers.

You need leadership that isn’t afraid to break from the past to discover the possibilities of the future, and that’s exactly what the Tribune is getting in Jane Hirt. It’s bittersweet for us, but its the right move for the company and I couldn’t be happier for her.

I’ll share more on this topic at my ‘Brand Aid’ presentation on the final day of SND Vegas.

Read a brief profile on her here by the Chicago Business News. Find a nice Q&A with her at JournalismJobs.

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Oh, man, does this one make me ill.

I hired Jeff Bash in the summer of 1999 while he was still a student at Grand View College to work for me in the graphics department of The Des Moines Register. He had done a fabulous job that summer as my intern. I had two positions to fill and was having no luck recruiting candidates; Jeff wanted part-time and weekend work.

Me, Jeff Bash and illustrator and page
designer Mark Marturello in 2003.
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So we extended his internship into a part-time gig. By that November, I knew: I wanted him full-time. So I made a deal with him: I’ll hire you now; work whatever hours you can. But you have to graduate on time.

And he did. Not only did he become my first full-time hire in Des Moines, but also he directed my attention to his college buddy Katie VanDalsem, designer and researcher. Hiring Jeff and Katie were two of the best moves I ever made as a newspaper manager. They both kicked ass. They both made me look smart as hell.

A couple of years in, I was taking a giant Ed Miller-taught management class via the Poynter Institute and, in need of a challenging project, I dreamt up a classic: I’ll train this kid to be my successor. Folks in Des Moines thought I was nuts: Are you sure? He’s so young. He’s so quiet.

Oh, yeah. I was sure.

I spent a lot of time working with him, one-on-one. I sent him off to the local community college to take a class in business writing: Grammar was not his strong point, and in a newsroom full of world-class writers, that could be a liability.

And when I finally left Des Moines for the Virginian-Pilot in 2003, I made only one recommendation: Hire Jeff to replace me.

They did. And they weren’t sorry. Hell, I think it’s a hoot that Jeff was actually graphics editor of the Register longer than I was.

So now Gannett, wishing to cut loose 600 of the hardworking journalists who put content on its pages, accepts buyouts from two incredibly talented reporters like Jerry Perkins and Ken Fuson — hell, Ken is one of the best writers working in journalism today! How can any paper let Ken Fuson leave?

But that’s not enough blood from the Des Moines turnip. So the Register laid off five people today. Four of them, I remember from my time there.

But only one of them was Jeff Bash.

Sigh.

Jeff is 31 years old. He has four years of experience as a news artist and five years of experience as a graphics editor/art director.

A few samples of Jeff’s work:

Find more in his NewsPageDesigner gallery.

This comes on the heels of a big, big news year in Iowa. Jeff’s staff has been doing superb work in print and online, covering floods and tornadoes and 15-year-old Olympians.

One of his Des Moines co-workers — who might not want to be quoted by name — writes:

He was so darned good, I was totally shocked.

He was the one who did the popular pumpkin carving templates (huge response) and the map/diagram/graphic of the DM levee system failure, if I remember correctly.

I can’t imagine what they are thinking …

I can’t either. I can’t either.

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