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Charles Apple: The Visual Side of Journalism

 

Archive for September 2010

Number of comments in parentheses

30: The centerpiece story today in Topeka: Typography (1)

It’s not often that you see typography and x-height as the focus of a page-one newspaper centerpiece. Luckily, the Capital-Journal of Topeka, Kansas — circulation 39,013 — comes to our rescue today. The subject of today’s centerpiece story is not just road signs, but the typography used on road signs. And, more to the point, how much money Topeka’s city [...]

30: The worst A1 ad juxtaposition you’ll ever see (2)

This one gave me quite a jolt this morning during my daily spin through the Newseum. The lead story on page one is about that poor Rutgers student who killed himself after his roommate posted a secretly-recorded video of the student having sex. The ad across the bottom of the page is for flu shots. But check out the headline [...]

30: Dennis Brack leaving the Washington Post for Foreign Policy magazine

Longtime designer and design manager Dennis Brack is leaving the Washington Post to become art director of Foreign Policy magazine. The 108,479-circulation bi-monthly is owned by the Washington Post Company. Dennis tells us: It was an unexpected opportunity to stay at a company I respect immensly while shifting to a different kind of creative work and leadership role. The Washington [...]

30: Birthdays for Thursday, Sept. 30

Here’s wishing the happiest of birthdays to three wonderful visual journalists… Siyabonga Africa is a grad student at Indiana University and a Ford Foundation fellow studying new media. A 2006 graduate of the University of Pretoria in South Africa, Siyabonga earned a graduate degree from the University of Stellenbosch and then worked as a reporter and a columnist for the [...]

29: And so it begins: Gannett recruits for new design centers (5)

I didn’t think we’d see this quite so early. Gannett has begun recruiting for designers to work at its five new “design center” hubs in Des Moines, Louisville, Asbury Park, Nashville and Phoenix. Here’s what the ad looks like: Find the real ad — complete with live links — here. And good hunting! — Go here to read my earlier [...]

29: The Los Angeles Times is at it again with a faux news wrap (2)

Will the Los Angeles Times ever learn? Or is it the newspaper-buying public who’s going to have to learn not to trust what they see on page one? Today’s LAT is wrapped with an ad. I’m on the record as hating these things. They’re becoming so common, though, that they’re hardly news anymore. This one, however, is more than just [...]

29: The funniest A1 illustration you’ll see all day (2)

Kyle Ellis of the New York Post tweeted today: I love this front page illo from the WaPo’s commuter tab, Express Click for a larger view: Oh, yeah. That’s a goodie. I asked my old pal Ernie Smith — famous for being the creator of ShortFormBlog but he’s also a designer for Express — for details. Ernie replies: It was [...]

29: …And God help you if you draw a locator map

Spotted Friday, outside a Lockheed Martin factory near San Jose, Calif.: There’s no word yet on whether or not one is allowed to take a photo of the sign banning photos. The photographer is Jef Poskanzer. Find more of his work here. Thanks to Boing Boing for blogging this Monday. The Poynter Institute’s centerpiece story Tuesday was on a related [...]

29: Birthdays for Wednesday, Sept. 29

Here’s wishing the happiest of birthdays to six wonderful journalists… Tan Ly is lead Sunday designer for the Washington Post. A 1996 graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Tan spent four years as a designer for the Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and then three more with the San Jose Mercury News before joining the Post in 2003. He served [...]

28: Detroit Free Press promotes two designers, one copy editor (1)

Julie Topping, managing editor of the Detroit Free Press issued a big staffing announcement Tuesday afternoon, full of all sorts of good news for several terrific folks: We are pleased to announce three promotions in the newsroom. Robert Huschka has been promoted to editor for news and presentation. This is a restructuring of the news editor’s role and reflects more [...]

28: Innovative Interactivity blog celebrating its birthday with contest, prizes

The Innovative Interactivity blog — devoted to multimedia journalism and run by UNC grad student Tracy Boyer — celebrates its third birthday this week with all sorts of prizes donated by notable… well, donors. The prizes are pretty cool. A sampling: Passes to a Webinar or Webinar replay at Poynter’s News University. One of these passes will be given away [...]

28: Ten reasons to hire a journalist… in cartoon form (1)

Last year, Jill Geisler of Poynter wrote an open letter to prospective employers, giving ten reasons why a former journalist would make a great hire in nearly any line of work. A year-and-a-half later, Patrick Garvin — of Jacksonville’s Florida Times-Union — decided to dust off Jill’s column and see if he could add anything to it by adding illustrations [...]

28: Censored in 12 countries: The Economist?

The Economist posted a chart last week showing where it has been censored, banned or confiscated over the past 20 months (click for a slightly larger view): The magazine reports: India has censored 31 issues and at first glance might look like the worst culprit. However its censorship consists of stamping “Illegal” on maps of Kashmir because it disputes the [...]

28: Birthday for Tuesday, Sept. 28

Here’s wishing the happiest of birthdays to Clif Page, former photo editor for the Beaver County Times in Beaver, Pa. Clif had worked for the Times 21 years before they laid him off last year. Previously, he had supervised the photo department at the New Castle (Pa.) News. Clif turns 55 today. Clif shares a birthday with actors Janeane Garofalo, [...]

27: The final word on the Katy Perry/Sesame Street incident

Don’t bother to tell me anything else about this story. I now know all I need to know, thanks to Don Asmussen‘s Bad Reporter comic strip: Don exercises his funnybone for the San Francisco Chronicle. Find the Bad Reporter home page here. Find the strip’s archive here. I posted a selection of Bad Reporter excerpts as few weeks ago. Find [...]

27: Why Google’s news ‘bots need copy editors (3)

They need copy editors to keep them from making mistakes like this one: That’s a story posted Sunday by Google’s feed from the Associated Press. Part of Google’s system, of course, involves automatically creating a locator map of the city in the dateline. The story is about those trapped miners in the San Jose Mine near Copiapó, Chile. Here, however, [...]

27: Yes, this obituary actually published in a daily paper (8)

Check out the bit that’s been highlighted: I know what you’re thinking. I, too, figured this had to be a fake. But it’s not. The gentleman passed away Monday, Sept. 6. This ran two days later in the News-Tribune of Rome, Ga., circulation 14,921. Find the obit from the Rome paper here and find the version posted by his funeral [...]

27: A fun page-one treatment for an Australian rugby league team

The Illawarra Mercury of Wollongong, Australia, today used its front page to promote the local rugby league team and its pursuit of a championship trophy. Click for a larger view: My only real beef with this page: I think that’s a little too much text to place downpage. And it’s especially too much text to reverse out of that orange-red [...]

27: New York Times celebrates its Op-Ed page (1)

The — as they say, much-imitated but never quite equaled — Op-Ed page of the New York Times turned 40 this month. To celebrate, the Times posted an entire book’s worth of retrospectives and articles. Find all that here. Most notably, though, the Times posted a video celebrating the art directors and illustrators that give the Op-Ed page its distinctive [...]

27: Birthdays for Monday, Sept. 27 (6)

Here’s wishing the happiest of birthdays today to three wonderful visual journalists… Elise Burroughs is a communications and even planning consultant based in Providence, R.I. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Elise spent six years as editor of Presstime magazine. She became director of technology conferences for the Newspaper Association of America in 2001 and then executive director of [...]

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