Charles Apple: The Visual Side of Journalism

 

A look at today’s notable Oklahoma tornado front pages

In the future, whenever you think of the horrifying tragedy Monday in Oklahoma, you’ll remember this image:

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That was shot in Moore, Okla., by Sue Ogrocki of the Associated Press.

Sue’s first-person story is downright chilling:

I expected chaos as I approached the piles of bricks and twisted metal where Plaza Towers Elementary once stood. Instead, it was calm and orderly as police and firefighters pulled children out one by one from beneath a large chunk of a collapsed wall.

Parents and neighborhood volunteers stood in a line and passed the rescued children from one set of arms to another, carrying them out of harm’s way. Adults carried the children through a field littered with shredded pieces of wood, cinder block and insulation to a triage center in a parking lot.

They worked quickly and quietly so rescuers could try to hear voices of children trapped beneath the rubble.

Read the rest of it here.

The way to play that photo — no matter where your paper was located today — was to run it big and get the hell out of its way. You’ll notice the similarities between how my former paper and my current paper built the top of page one today.

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On the left is the Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk, Va., circulation 142,476. On the right is Scott Albert’s take in the Orange County Register of Santa Ana, Calif., circulation 280,812.

Several other papers also elected to give that same picture prominent play on page one today — and with a variation of that same headline. Click any of these — or any page here today — for a larger look.

130521TornadoLaDailyNews  130521TornadoChattanoogaTenn  130521TornadoHarrisburgPa  130521TornadoCincinnatiOhio

From left:

  • Los Angeles Daily News, circulation 94,016
  • Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times Free Press, circulation 75,336
  • Harrisburg, Pa., Patriot-News, circulation 70,446
  • Cincinnati (Ohio) Enquirer, circulation 144,165

And several papers paired their “devastation” headlines with this equally moving picture by Paul Hellstern of the Oklahoman of Oklahoma City, of teachers walking students away from the rubble of their school.

130521TornadoFargoND  130521TornadoAugustaGa

Do yourself a favor, folks, and don’t look too closely at that photo. Especially at the bruised and bleeding faces of those heroic teachers. Especially if you’re married to a teacher.

On the left is the Forum of Fargo, N.D., circulation 45,298. On the right is the Chronicle of Augusta, Ga., circulation 55,444.

Just to show you didn’t have to use “devastation” in your headline today, here are four more pages using that same Oklahoman picture, but with different — and wonderful — headline treatments.

130521TornadoNewarkNJ 130521TornadoOmahaNeb 130521TornadoDesMoinesIowa 130521TornadoChicagoIll

From left:

  • Newark, N.J., Star-Ledger, circulation 278,940
  • Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald, circulation 135,223
  • Des Moines (Iowa) Register, circulation 101,915
  • Chicago (Ill.) Tribune, circulation 414,590

Here are three that used the Sue Ogrocki photo, but with different headlines.

130521TornadoLosAngelesCalif  130521TornadoMinneapolisMinn  130521TornadoDetroitMich

From left:

  • Los Angeles (Calif.) Times, circulation 616,575
  • Minneapolis, Minn., Star Tribune, circulation 300,330
  • Detroit (Mich.) Free Press, circulation 232,696

In particular, I love how the Free Press headline puts an additional terrifying spin on an already alarming story. What I don’t like is how far down the page that story is shoved by the hockey skybox.

On the other hand, the hockey story a) is local, and b) will sell a lot of papers. Note how the picture is moved below the fold, but that dynamite headline will peek out of a news rack. Nicely played.

Even the New York City tabloids today created what I call “regional twins.”

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If I had to choose between the two, I’d argue the Daily News (left, circulation 595,636) shows the scope of the devastation behind the woman and child. The size and position of the headline on the Post (right, circulation 555,327) hides a important part of the photo.

Now, let’s turn our attention to the papers in Oklahoma…


TULSA WORLD
Tulsa, Okla.
Circulation: 97,725

The suburb of Oklahoma City that was struck Monday — Moore — was hit hard 14 years ago in a storm people there remember very clearly. Which explains the headline used today by the Tulsa World.

130521TornadoTulsaOkla

You already know I love the photo and the “play it big” treatment. The above-the-headline bullet points are a nice touch here.


PERRY DAILY JOURNAL
Perry, Okla.
Circulation: 3,050

I realize this is a tiny, tiny daily paper. But still, given the enormity of Monday’s events, this is perhaps the most unfortunate headline of the day.

130521TornadoPerryOkla

From what I can tell, the story — and presumably the headline — was written before Monday’s storms struck.


NORMAN TRANSCRIPT
Norman, Okla.
Circulation: 10,727

Nightmare” sums up Monday on the front of the Norman paper today.

130521TornadoNormanOkla

Instead of leading with school photos, the Transcript went with a photo of a woman being pulled from the rubble of a medical center in Moore. That seems an odd choice, given the number of victims at the school. The photo in the bottom left corner is a Sue Ogrocki picture from the school, but credited only to the “Associated Press.”


OKLAHOMAN
Oklahoma City, Okla.
Circulation: 130,177

The headline atop today’s Oklahoman made me stop and scratch my head.

130521TornadoOklahomaCity

I’m told this is a reference to the big storm that ripped through Oklahoma City in 1999. Locals get it.

However, one correspondent told me this morning:

In fact it was not worse than the tornado on May 3, 1999.

If that turns out to be the case, then someone might regret this headline.


MY WORK FROM MONDAY

I’ll close with some of my own work from Monday.

I was working away on my next Focus page for the Orange County Register, here in Southern California, when our news editor wondered if we could pull together some  information on what is a tornado and how dangerous they can be for today’s paper. They have a few waterspouts in these parts, but actual tornadoes are quite rare. So a backgrounder seemed in order.

It was around 3 p.m. I dumped what I was working on and jumped on it.

Luckily, I’ve done tornado graphics many, many times in the past. (And some of you will remember this blog post from March in which I explained why I’m so well-read on this topic.) So I knew where to go for statistical data. In addition, one of my colleagues here had done a nice “how a tornado is formed” graphic that beat hell out of the most recent one I had done. So I used his as a starting point.

Here is the resulting graphic, which ran on page three of today’s paper. Click, of course, for a larger view.

130521FocusPageTornado1.jpg

I didn’t want to interfere with whatever my friends on the A-section desk were doing with live coverage, so I stayed away from pictures of Monday’s tornado — which was of a less photogenic type, anyway, from what I can see in the videos. As the little caption says, there, in the bottom right: That is a tornado that was photographed Sunday near Wichita, Kansas.

Down the right side is a series of graphics that show how a tornado forms and — most importantly, for folks here in California — how they can spot them on radar and give people in their path early warning.

On the left is a look at stats: The ten deadliest, a month-by-month look at numbers over the past three-and-a-half years. See the two bars that stick way out to the right? Those are the months that produced the tornadoes in Tuscaloosa, Huntsville and Joplin.

In particular, I liked the bit that shows “tornado alley” and “Dixie alley,” where these storms are more frequent.

This was the first time I’ve built one of these pages on short notice, off the day’s news.

Today’s front page images are all from the Newseum. Of course.

Birthdays for Tuesday, May 21

Here’s wishing the happiest of birthdays to five terrific visual journalists…

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Marsha Blackburn is a quality assurance specialist and technical writer for the Research Triangle Institute in the Raleigh/Durham area of North Carolina. A graduate of the nearby University of North Carolina, Marsha spent seven years as features editor for the Fayetteville Observer and then three years as assistant editor of the Triangle Observer before moving to the News & Observer of Raleigh in 1991. She stayed there for 18 years, serving as an assistant metro editor, editor of 50 Plus, a producer for Nando Media, coordinator for Triangle.com and a content producer for NewsObserver.com. She moved to the RTI in 2009 as a proposal manager and slid over to her new duties in in 2012. Find her Twitter feed here.

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Victor Caballero is a freelance visual and data journalist based in Madrid, Spain. A graduate of the Universidad San Pablo, Victor spent a year as a broadcast coordinator for IUCR Instituto Radiofónico de la Comunicación Radiofónica, a year with LetsBuyIt.com and then another year as a visual journalist with el Mundo before going freelance in 2002. Find his web site here and his Twitter feed here. He turns 38 today.

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Bruce Henderson is assistant news editor of the News-Journal of Daytona Beach, Fla. A 1969 graduate of the University of California, Riverside, Bruce worked as a reporter, a photographer and an editor for the Palm Beach Post, the Press & Journal of Vero Beach, the News of Okeechobee, Fla., the Sun of Avon Park, Fla., the Times-Enterprise of Thomasville, Ga., the Coastal Courier of Hinesville, Ga. and the Daily Star of Hammond, La. He moved to Daytona Beach in 1990. Bruce turns 66 today.

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Kristen Huth is a librarian at Hopewell High School in Pittsburgh, Pa. A 2009 graduate of Penn State University, Kristen served as managing editor for design her senior year at the Daily Collegian. She majored in journalism, minored in French and interned at the Virginian-Pilot and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. She won nice scholarship three years ago from the American Copy Editors Society. She obtained a master’s degree in library and information science last year from the University of Pittsburgh and began working at the high school last year. Plus, she continues to work at the Tribune-Review. Find her professional web site here. Kristen turns 26 today.

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Elsolet Joubert is an artist for Graphics24, the infographics unit of the Media24 chain of newspapers and based in Johannesburg, South Africa. A 2004 graduate of Northwest University, Elsolet spent two years as an artist for Beeld, the Afrikaans-language daily in Johannesburg. She left in 2007 to join an advertising agency but returned the next year to concentrate on business graphics via Media24′s business news unit, Sake24. In 2010, she moved into the brand new graphics unit, where I had the pleasure of working with her again. Last summer, she made her first trip to the U.S. to attend the Kalish Visual Editing Workshop in Muncie, Ind., and then spent a week studying with me in in Virginia Beach. In her spare time — believe it or not — Elsolet attends law school. Find her web site here. Elsolet turns 31 today.

Kristen, Elsolet, Victor, Marsha and Bruce share a birthday with actors Lisa Edelstein, Edward Ernest “Judge” Reinhold Jr., Laurence Tureaud (better known as Mr. T), Raymond William Stacey Burr, Mary Margaret “Peggy” Cass and Sarah Emily Ramos; musicians Christopher George Latore Wallace (better known as Biggie Smalls or the Notorious B.I.G.), Wouter “Gotye” De Backer, Adam Wade Gontier (of Three Days Grace), Gerard Hugh “Leo” Sayer and Thomas Wright “Fats” Waller; sports greats Kent Allen Hrbek, Joshua Holt “Josh” Hamilton, Matthew Richard “Matt” Wieters (all three baseball), Robert Joseph “Bobby” Cox (baseball manager), Thomas Robert “Tom” Daley (diving), Herbert Dorsey Levens and Errick Lynne “Ricky” Williams Jr. (football), Dave Wannstedt and Ara Raoul Parseghian (football coaches); photographer Vernon Joseph Biever; painter Henri Julien Félix Rousseau; poet Alexander Pope; novelist Harold Rubin (better known as Harold Robbins); serial murderer Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer; comedian-turned-senator Alan Stuart “Al” Franken; aviator Glenn Hammond Curtiss; physicist Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov and philosopher Plato.

In addition to Victoria Day in Canada, today is American Red Cross Founder’s Day, National Wait Staff Day, National Endangered Species Day and I Need a Patch For That Day. Seriously.

Best wishes, all! Have a terrific birthday!

How Oklahoma papers played Sunday’s deadly tornado outbreak

Only two died. That was the good news.

But that’s about all the good news folks in central Oklahoma are waking up to today.

At least two tornadoes ripped though the state Sunday. One started out near Edmond and stayed on the ground until it smashed into the town of Carney. The other touched down east of Norman and ripped up Shawnee and Bethel Acres, leaving the latter in “splinters.”

The two fatalities were in a mobile home park near Shawnee.

Here’s a quick look at how three central Oklahoma papers played the storms on page one today.

TULSA WORLD
Tulsa, Okla.
Circulation: 97,725

The Tulsa paper played the story the safest, perhaps, with a standard headline proclaiming the biggest news: Only one dead. Which was the case at press time last night. A second body has been found, the AP is reporting this morning.

Might the World have been better off with a headline like: At least one dead? Or: One reported dead? I wonder.

While the headline is fairly standard, the deck — containing a quote — works very well with the lead photo.

130520TornadoesTulsa

Still, I’d like to see a version of this page with that quote as the main headline. I think that might have told the story better.

Both pictures here are from the Oklahoma City paper.


NORMAN TRANSCRIPT
Norman, Okla.
Circulation: 10,727

The Norman paper squeezed four aftermath photos onto page one today, which was at least one — and, perhaps, two — too many.

130520TornadoesNorman

The picture — by staffer Kyle Phillips — of a woman standing in the remains of her daughter’s home is just heartbreaking. Nicely played, and well-paired with that particular headline.

Kyle also shot the picture of folks clearing debris while staffer Jay Chilton made the two nighttime pictures at bottom right. I’m not real sure if we can make out what’s happening in either of those pictures. I’d question their use on page one.


OKLAHOMAN
Oklahoma City, Okla.
Circulation: 130,177

The Oklahoma City paper had what I consider the best headline of the day — a quote hed — and the best lead art of the day as well.

130520TornadoesOklahomaCity

The old woman on the right of that hug was in her cellar at the time the tornado ripped apart her home. And she still looks terrified.

The picture is by staffer Bryan Terry.

You’ll recognize the downpage photo by Sarah Phipps of a man comforting his girlfirend, whose trailer was destroyed. That also appeared on page one of the Tulsa paper.

The Oklahoman also managed to get in a map showing the tracks of the two outbreaks. The map was drawn by staffer David Downham.

These front pages are from the Newseum. Of course.

Birthdays for Monday, May 19

Here’s wishing the happiest of birthdays to five excellent visual journalists…

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Jennifer Conklin is director of publications for Advance’s Alabama Media Group in Birmingham, Ala. A 1998 graduate of the University of Kansas, Jennifer spent two years as a designer for the State in Columbia, S.C., and then five years at the Charlotte Observer. She moved to the Herald of Bradenton, Fla., in 2004 as day editor and was named assistant managing editor of the Media General consolidated editing center in Tampa, Fla., in 2010. She moved to Alabama last summer. Jennifer turns 37 today.

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Lynette Holman is an assistant professor of journalism at Appalachian State University. A 1993 graduate of James Madison University, Lynette earned a master’s degree from the University of Texas and then worked as a features designer and copy editor for the Columbia (Mo.) Daily Tribune and a designer and production coordinator for Price Waterhouse in Arlington, Va. She joined the Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk in 1997 as a designer, left for a year to design features at the Post-Herald of Birmingham, Ala., and returned to the Pilot in 2000, where she designed mostly business pages. She also taught journalism as an adjunct at Virginia Wesleyan College. She left the Pilot again in 2007 to attend yet more grad school — this time at the University of North Carolina. She earned her Ph.D. three years ago and began teaching at ASU in Boone, N.C., in 2010. Find her web site here. Lynette turns 42 today.

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Christine Holzmann is a freelance graphic designer in the Atlanta, Ga., area. A native of South Africa, Christine is a 1987 graduate of Johannesburg’s Sacred Heart College and a 1989 graduate of the Johannesburg College of Education. She spent more than 11 years as design editor and creative director for the Citizen of Fayetteville, Ga. She worked two years for Lee Magazine of Auburn, Ala., before joining CeloNova BioSciences in Newnan, Ga. in 2008. She left CeloNova in 2011. Find her web site here.

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Erica Streisfeld is editor of custom pubs at Journal Publications of Harrrisburg, Pa., and a food and wine blogger for the Central Penn Business Journal. A 2002 graduate of the University of Delaware, Erica earned a master’s degree in advertising from Syracuse University in 2003 and then spent four years as director of communications for the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association. She joined Journal Publications three years ago. In addition, Erica founded the annual Harrisburg Cupcake Cup, a baking competition that raises money for the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank. Find her Twitter feed here.

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Mary Ann Chick Whiteside spent nearly 40 years at the Flint (Mich.) Journal before taking a buyout four years ago. A 1977 graduate of Michigan State University, Mary Ann joined the Journal in 1978 as a copy editor. She became suburban editor in 1986, and regional editor in 1989, running a bureau, launching the paper’s first electronic archive and developing a newsroom training program. She became the Journal‘s interactive media manager in 1994. In addition, Mary Ann spent seven years as director of Genesee Free-Net, a nonprofit computer network based in Genesee, Mich., that offers low-cost internet access and assists other non-profits in coming online. Find Mary Ann’s web site here.

Erica, Jennifer, Christine, Lynette and Mary Ann share a birthday with actors James Maitland “Jimmy” Stewart, Bronson Alcott Pinchot, David “Dave” Thomas, George Leslie Gobel, Mindy Heather Cohn and John Billingsley; musicians Cherilyn Sarkisian (better known a Cher), John Robert “Joe” Cocker, Trevor Tahiem Smith Jr. (better known as Busta Rhymes), Jane Marie Genevieve Wiedlin (of the Go-Go’s), Israel Ka’ano’i Kamakawiwo’ole and Naturi Cora Maria Naughton; sports greats Stanislav Guoth Mikita (better known as hockey’s Stan Mikita), Iker Casillas Fernández (soccer), Jayson Richard Gowan Werth, David Lee Wells (both baseball), Harry Peter “Bud” Grant Jr. (football coach) and Anthony Wayne “Tony” Stewart (auto racing); philosopher John Stuart Mill; politician David Alexander Paterson; commentators Dan Abrams and Ronald Prescott “Ron” Reagan; journalists Nora Adela Rogers St. Johns and Walter Isaacson and comic book writer Gardner Francis Cooper Fox.

In addition, today is Eliza Doolitle Day and Weights and Measures Day. Seriously.

Best wishes, all! Have a terrific birthday!

Birthdays for Sunday, May 19

Here’s wishing the happiest of birthdays to four terrific visual journalists…

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Stephanie Haberman is a social media producer for NBC News — specifically, Rock Center with Brian Williams and Dateline. A 2010 graduate of Indiana University, Stephanie spent the summer of 2009 as a multimedia intern at Newsday and then served as photo editor and multimedia editor of the Indiana Daily Student. After graduation, she spent six months working social media for at Sports Illustrated. She spent a year-and-a-half working for Mashable and then joined NBC in November. Find her web site here and her Twitter feed here. Stephanie turns 25 today.

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Jane Hirt has been managing editor of the Chicago Tribune for about five years. A 1989 graduate of the University of Nebraska, Jane has spent 19 years at the Tribune as foreign/national news editor, copy desk chief and editor of the commuter tabloid RedEye. She was one of the founding editors of RedEye, in fact. Find her Twitter feed here.

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Sula Pettibon is public relations officer for Family Trust Credit Union in Rock Hill, S.C. She spent many years, however, at the Rock Hill Herald, serving as a reporter, city editor, business editor and managing editor. Sula left the Herald in 2008 and joined Family Trust a year later. She also writes and edits a little on the side. Sula turns 56 today.

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Gordon Preece is art director of the Free Press of Winnipeg, Canada. He’s a 1969 graduate of Tech Voc. Find his Twitter feed here. Gordon turns 62 today.

Stephanie, Jane, Sula and Gordon share a birthday with actors Steven Meigs Ford and Peter Mayhew; musicians Peter Dennis Blandford “Pete” Townshend, Jeffry Ross Hyman (better known as Joey Ramone), Kyle Eastwood and Jordan Lynn Pruitt; writer/producer Nora Ephron; models Grace Mendoza (better known as Grace Jones) and Lily Luahana Cole; wrassler André René Roussimoff (better known as André the Giant); communist leaders Hồ Chí Minh (Vietnam) and Saloth Sar (better known as Cambodia’s Pol Pot); activist Malcolm Little (who later changed his name to Malcolm X); writer Lorraine Hansberry; explorer Ferdinand Magellan; sports greats Kevin Maurice Garnett, William “Bill” Laimbeer Jr., Almario Vernard “Mario” Chalmers (all three basketball), Elisha Archibald “Archie” Manning (football) and George Dario Marino Franchitti (auto racing) and TV newsmen David Downs Hartman and James Charles “Jim” Lehrer.

In addition, today is Boys Club Day, Neighbor Day and Mike, the Headless Chicken Day. Seriously.

Best wishes for the best birthday ever!