Momentous events went down in Egypt on Friday.
Nearly every paper that led with the resignation of Egypt’s president illustrated that story with with pictures of delirious citizens celebrating in the streets of Cairo. Which gives a sameness to today’s front pages.
Nevertheless, let’s look at today’s most notable treatments, as seen today at the Newseum.
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INTERNATIONAL FRONTS
I already showed you the front page today’s Beeld of Johannesburg.
The National of Abu Dhabi used one of the more interesting pictures, this one topped by a waving Egyptian flag.
The picture is by Tara Todras of the Associated Press. The government-owned National circulates about 40,000 copies daily.
I loved the headline and picture choice afront of the Guardian of London, circulation 283,063.
Enbedding the little Egyptian flag into the refer box was a nice touch. But given the number of flags seen in the lead photo, was it a bit redundant?
The lead picture is by Suhaib Salem of Reuters.
Equally good was the front page of the Times of London, circulation 502,436.
The picture is by Mohammed Abed of AFP/Getty.
I couldn’t help but laugh at the wonderful play on page one of the China Daily.
I mean, talk about a country that’s ripe for one of these people’s revolutions.
The picture is by Dylan Martinez of Reuters. The China Daily circulates more than 300,000 copies per day.
Probably the best play I’ve seen today was by Público of Lisbon, Portugal, circulation 42,000, which played up this wonderful picture by Amr Abdallah Dalsh, also of Reuters.
That headline says:
Egypt [is] free
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AMERICAN PAPERS OF RECORD
As you’d expect, Egypt was top-of-page-one in the major U.S. newspapers.
The New York Times — circulation 876,638 — led with a picture by freelancer Ed Ou.
That’s a nice shot, giving us a feel for the kind of scope the celebrations took Friday night.
I can’t quite tell what’s going on in this picture by Washington Post staffer Linda Davidson:
The guy firing the torch or flare gun seems quite a bit happier than the guy beneath him, however.
Average daily circulation for the Washington Post is 545,345.
The Boston Globe — circulation 222,683 — used a picture I didn’t see anywhere else, by Pedro Ugarte of AFP/Getty.
The timeline down the left side was a nice touch, as was the forward-looking — or, at least, forward asking — headline.
Here is today’s Los Angeles Times, circulation 600,449:
The picture by staffer Rick Loomis is less notable than some of the other front-page shots today. But the play of it is superb.
Perhaps the best picture of any of the big five today was this one by David Degner on the front of today’s Wall Street Journal.
On the other hand, I might be simply wowed by the fact that we’re seeing a five-column color photo on the front of the Wall Street Journal today. That happens occasionally. But it still freaks me out.
Average daily circulation for the WSJ is 2.06 million.
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GREAT PLAY BY U.S. PAPERS
Traditionally, U.S. readers don’t care much for international politics. Since I’ve not been in the U.S. over the past few weeks, it’s difficult for me to judge interest in this story. Perhaps Americans are paying attention to this story, however, since it’s played out so neatly for you on afternoon television.
The best visual play given to this story by any U.S. paper was this front page by the Star Tribune of Casper, Wyo., circulation 24,121.
Is that wonderful, or what? The picture selection –that’s by Emilio Morenatti of the Associated Press, by the way — the typography, the use of color. That’s a perfect centerpiece package.
Also nice was this front page by the News of Hutchinson, Kansas, circulation 31,019:
My only beef here is the alternating white and red words in the nice pullquote. A better idea might have been to leave all that text white. The red words detract from the package.
The lead picture was by the Associated Press.
The Kansas City Star — circulation 206,441 — chose a shot that contained a blurry Egyptian flag waving in the foreground. That worked well with the superimposed nameplate.
That’s another shot by the AP’s Emilio Morenatti.
The Detroit News gave the story — and a wonderful Morenatti picture — play above the nameplate.
That’s a great picture and one you’ll see again in a few moments. Average daily circulation for the News is 146,962.
The Times of Munster, Ind. — circulation 83,877 — did something very unusual on A1 today. The designer cut out the foreground of the AP picture and then faded the background with Photoshop, giving a featurey, magazine-like feel to the front page.
In the past, I’ve preached against doing anything like this to a news photo. In fact, I’ve downright condemned altering breaking news photos. However, given that the folks at Pictures of the Year International granted third place in its huge annual contest to photos shot with an image-altering electronic iPhone filter, I don’t have the heart to slam the Times today.
The Gazette of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was one of the few papers that called this event what it really was: A revolution.
The photos were from the AP. Average daily circulation for the Gazette is 48,129.
The Denver Post — circulation 309,863 — led with a long shot from AFP Getty and then supplemented that with smaller vignettes of ecstatic faces of folks on the streets of Cairo.
Apparently, there were fireworks in the sky over Cairo Friday night. Given the fact that the Egyptian military was suddenly in charge, I’m not so sure that was a great idea.
The Tribune-Review of Pittsburgh — circulation 179,695 — played a great AP picture of those fireworks along with a headline that appeared on a number of papers today.
The Press Democrat of Santa Rosa, Calif., used the ‘Egypt is Free’ head along with the cool Emilio Morenatti picture I lauded a moment ago.
I told you you’d see it again.
The Hartford Courant — circulation 134,751 — used the same headline with one of my favorite pictures of the day: Of a woman dancing with joy atop a car.
Why is that one of my favorite shots of the day? Look closely at the roof of the car:
I can just see the conversation:
Hello, Geico? Um, does my insurance cover damage caused by a woman dancing on the roof of my car during a revolution? I need to file a claim…
A number of papers around the U.S. led with this wonderful photo by Hussein Malla of the Associated Press. No one did it as well as did the News & Record of Greensboro, N.C., circulation 62,074.
And a number of papers led with this shot by John Moore of Getty Images of a man overcome with emotion. Here it is, played brilliantly — as usual — by the Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk, circulation 156,968.
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TABLOIDS OF THE BIG APPLE
Here is that same picture with a very, very tight crop on the front of Newsday of Melville, Long Island.
Average daily circulation of Newsday is 314,848.
The New York Daily News — circulation 512,520 — used the same photo but lessened the impact somewhat by attempting not one, but two funny headlines:
“Finally gets the memo” is a bit obscure. But whatever.
We’ll close with this incredibly tacky cover by the New York Post, circulation 501,501:
Man. That’s harsh. But a scream.
All of today’s pages come from the Newseum.
