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Charles Apple: The Visual Side of Journalism

 

Archive for July 2011

Number of comments in parentheses

31: Photography powerful enough to require a disclaimer. Across the top of page one. (1)

This note caught my attention this morning. It was stripped across the very top of page one of the Virginian-Pilot, my former paper. We still get it here at the Apple household every day. I’ve cut-and-pasted it into one column so you can read it better: Denis Finley — the Pilot‘s editor — knows his way around pictures, of course. [...]

31: Yet another horrible TV news graphic (2)

For years, a number of us have been trying to teach the value of content-driven visuals. In the TV business, especially, producers feel the need to decorate nearly every story with some trite little icon that is often plastered on the screen behind the anchor. For the station’s web site, that icon might be used as lead art on a [...]

31: Birthdays for Sunday, July 31 (1)

Here’s wishing the happiest of birthdays to three wonderful journalists… Jane Burns is a reporter for the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison, Wis. A 1983 graduate of Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, Jane spent 17 years as a reporter for the Des Moines Register. She moved to a copy editing position at the Star Tribune of Minneapolis in 2000 [...]

30: If I could talk to the animals…

My morning romp through the daily front-page archive at the Newseum produced little to talk about today. So I thought I’d direct your attention to three newspapers that chose to use enormous amounts of space today on our furry friends. Isn’t this a wonderful shot  by the Fayetteville Observer‘s Andrew Craft? That is Rajaji, running free in an enclosure at [...]

30: Birthdays for Saturday, July 30 (3)

Here’s wishing the happiest of birthdays to two fabulous folks… Amy Kuenzie is a yoga teacher and vocational rehab caseworker based in Irmo, South Carolina. A 1985 graduate of the University of South Carolina, Amy earned a master’s degree from Columbia College and spent years working as a parole examiner and victim’s advocate within the justice system. She’s been with [...]

29: So why is this unimpressive chart impressing so many people tonight?

I’ve bent over backwards to stay out of the debt ceiling debate. But after seeing a bunch of the folks I follow breathlessly retweet this tonight, I can’t sit still any longer. The story is that President Barack Obama‘s unprecedented Twitter campaign today — in which his operation pretty much flooded the interwebs with updates about the debate and listing [...]

29: World’s most obtrusive A1 ad? Or not?

A blog reader tipped me off this morning about a large, half-page advertisement on the front of today’s Daily Iowan, the student paper at the University of Iowa. Sure enough, this sucker is huge. Sorry for the poor resolution; this is all I can get ahold of: Slightly alarmed but curious, I queried Adam B. Sullivan, the talented young editor-in-chief [...]

29: A little ‘Cowboys & Aliens’ action for your Geekazoid Friday (1)

Today, the next of a long line of summer action movies — Cowboys & Aliens, starring James Bond and Indiana Jones Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford — opens in theaters. I’m taking the afternoon off today to see the movie with my daughter, in fact. Blain Hefner of the Salt Lake Tribune was kind enough to send us the big [...]

29: For your consideration…

Forget all the charts, graphs, timelines and analyses. Here’s the best take yet on the ongoing debate over the debt ceiling: The cartoon is by veteran Daily News illustrator Ed Murawinski. Who, in fact, took a similar approach the last time he visited this topic.   Average daily circulation for the Daily News is 530,924. That front-page image is from [...]

29: Birthdays for Friday, July 29

Here’s wishing the happiest of birthdays to four extraordinary visual journalists… Bill Marx is senior NASCAR editor of the Sporting News in Charlotte, N.C. A 1982 graduate of the University of Central Florida, Bill spent 16 years as a copy editor and then chief of the sports copy desk at the Orlando Sentinel. He moved to St. Louis in 1992 [...]

28: Help these college kids pick their ‘retro’ newspaper cover (5)

By now, I’m sure you’ve seen the story posted this evening by Jim Romenesko: The student newspaper at Florida Atlantic University tried an experiment with its final summer edition. They’re attempting to publish “all on paper.” Using photo prints, typewriters, pica poles, rubber cement… and no computers or digital cameras or other newfangled gadgets. The project has been funded, in [...]

28: A Norman Rockwell-inspired entertainment cover in Victoria, Texas (1)

Yesterday, I wrote about the New York Post‘s attempt to play off of a famous old 1975 cover of its competitor, the Daily News. It was a cute idea but, as I wrote, I’m not sure many people over the page of 40 remember President Gerald Ford or the New York City financial crisis of the time. Robert Zavala — [...]

28: Three cool page-one photos (1)

Three cool page one photos, as seen today at the Newseum… — YOU JUST KNOW THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE LOVES THIS This is just the photo the tourism folks want to see displayed over four columns in a resort community. That wonderfully high-larious page-one art is by staffer Steve Heaslip of the Cape Cod Times of Hyannis, Mass. The story [...]

28: Your belly laugh for the day

So many disasters. Luckily, actor Jason Alexander is here to tell us how we can help. Thanks to Lori Grunin of CNet for tweeting about this today.

28: Why the city of Norfolk, Va., needs a copy editor (1)

The city of Norfolk, Va., needs a copy editor to protect it from spelling errors on manhole covers. Oh, that’s just olvely. As you can see, that cover was made in India. But still, Norfolk officials presumably signed off on it when it was installed more than 20 years ago. No one really noticed until a tourist spotted it recently [...]

28: Birthdays for Thursday, July 28

Here’s wishing the happiest of birthdays to four wonderful visual journalists… Liza Albrecht is editor of Rapport, the Afrikaans-language national Sunday paper of South Africa published by Media24 in Johannesburg. A 1993 graduate of Stellenbosch University near Cape Town, Liza spent time as an assistant editor at die Burger of Cape Town and then national editor of the newspaper’s supplement. [...]

27: Fun with the nameplate in Huntsville

My pals at the Huntsville Times wanted to promo a real talker today — a story on the front of sports about which local football players were picked up by NFL teams in the wake of Tuesday’s labor settlement. They chose to do that in a rather creative way: By turning the paper’s nameplate into the nameplate of a football [...]

27: For your consideration… (2)

Today’s New York Post cover is deliberately familiar. The story is about grass-roots outrage at the failure of Congress and President Barack Obama to make a deal on the debt limit. But the cover is meant to be a reference to a famous old cover of the rival Daily News from way back in October 1975, when then-President Gerald Ford [...]

27: A look at the latest interactive project by the News21 team at UNC Chapel Hill (2)

The latest Powering a Nation story by the News21 project at the University of North Carolina — sponsored by the Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education — went live last Friday. These are the folks who created a project last year that won umpteen zillion awards for multimedia storytelling. This year’s team set one goal: To one-up last [...]

27: Birthdays for Wednesday, July 27

Here’s wishing the happiest of birthdays to five talented visual journalists… Rudi Louw is a graphic artist for the Media24 chain of newspapers and based in Johanneburg, South Africa. A 1989 graduate of Selborne College in East London, South Africa, Rudi spent 19 years as a print and multimedia artist for the Daily Dispatch of East London. His arrival in [...]

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