Archive for August 2011

31: Hey, I love a pun headline, but… (1)

…you have to know when to use a pun in a headline and when not to. If it’s a light story. Or a feature. Or a news story that isn’t, y’know, about death or terrorism or something gruesome. It’s OK to use pun headlines on stories like that. Knock yourself out. But — hypothetically speaking — let’s say a story [...]

31: Football preview section: Vintage football cards from the Sanford (N.C.) Herald

I used to collect football cards. I still do, I suppose. I’ve not been very active lately, however. I just can’t imagine where all my spare time has gone. But because I collect cards and because I prefer cards from *ahem* a certain era, I found myself fascinated by the prep football preview section from the Sanford Herald, a 8,162-circulation [...]

31: Twelve notable Hurricane Irene front pages

Hurricane Irene coverage on page one seems to be tapering off somewhat. Papers that aren’t downplaying the story seem to be repeating themselves a bit. From a presentation point of view, at least. So today’s Hurricane Irene roundup will be brief. As usual, all these pages are from the daily archive at the Newseum. — DAILY PRESS Newport News, Va. [...]

31: Gaddafi with the wind

Surely by now you’ve seen the cover of the new issue of Time magazine featuring Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi. Yes, that’s by illustrator Tim O’Brien. The same guy who did the X’d out portrait of Osama bin Laden a couple months ago.   In his blog, Tim writes how a… …short e-mail from TIME‘s [design director] D.W. Pine read, ” are [...]

31: Birthdays for Wednesday, Aug. 31

Here’s wishing the happiest of birthdays to four wonderful visual journalists… Robert Ahrens is an artist and multimedia news designer for USA Today in McLean, Va. A 1987 graduate of Elgin Community College, Robert spent a year as a production artist at Elgin’s Joseph Spiess Company before joining the Northwest Herald of Crystal Lake, Ill. He spent two years there [...]

30: Football preview sections: Atlanta, Casper and Oklahoma City

Tonight, we present more in our ongoing series of football preview section covers. — ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION Atlanta, Ga. Circulation: 183,415 I spent last weekend at my in-laws’ house in Lilburn, in the northeast suburbs of Atlanta. Sunday morning, I spotted the cover of the AJC‘s special section lying on the kitchen table and made a mental note to buy a [...]

30: Hastings (Neb.) Tribune names new design editor

Deann Stumpe, — officially the “news director” — for the Tribune of Hastings, Neb., has been promoted as one of several changes announced today by the 12,025-circulation six-days-a-week paper located in the south central part of the state. The Tribune announced today: Deann Stumpe is the Tribune‘s new special sections editor and a design editor. She manages all news content [...]

30: Tuesday’s 20 best Hurricane Irene front pages (6)

I can’t possibly hope to top yesterday’s Hurricane Irene roundup. So today, let’s take a look at the top 20 pages of the day, as found this morning at the Newseum… ———————————- THE PERSONAL TOUCH Several papers expended their front-page centerpieces today showing personal tales of loss and salvation. — NEWS & RECORD Greensboro, N.C. Circulation: 60,993 One of the [...]

30: Birthdays for Tuesday, Aug. 30

Here’s wishing the happiest of birthdays to seven wonderful journalists… Leslie J. Ansley is marketing and communications manager for Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. A 1983 graduate of Ohio State University, Leslie worked as a reporter, copy editor and editor at a number of papers, including the Dayton, Ohio, Journal Herald, the Pittsburgh (Pa.) Post-Gazette, the Cincinnati Enquirer, USA [...]

29: Monday’s Hurricane Irene pages… nothing but hype? (8)

Take a memo for me, if you will. Dear Philadelphia Daily News… Thanks so much for being the only newspaper on the East Coast today to expose the ongoing Hurricane Irene story for what it really was: Nothing but overblown hype. You could get a real sense of all this today by simply taking a spin around the daily archive [...]

29: Too far with a photo illustration, perhaps? (4)

The topic for the new issue of ESPN the magazine: Would Michael Vick have had all the troubles he had over the past few years if he had been born white? The piece is interesting, provocative and, really, all it should be. But here’s how the magazine illustrated this story: Yikes! Well, I hope they played it small. Hmm. As [...]

29: Birthdays for Monday, Aug. 29

Here’s wishing the happiest of birthdays to three brilliant visual journalists… Nancy Jones Francis is a freelance artist and editor based in Albuquerque, N.M. A 1987 graduate of Syracuse University, Nancy spent a year as a features editor for the Times of Munster, Ind., and then nearly a year at a design firm before landing at the Press of Grand [...]

29: Home, sweet home…

Our little emergency scramble out of town to avoid the wrath of Hurricane Irene — which, as you know, turned out to be less wrath and more fizzle, here in Virginia Beach — lasted about 75 hours. We spent the weekend in Atlanta with my wife’s parents. Once we were certain that damage here was virtually non-existent, we packed up [...]

28: Your annual guide to fantasy football by the Virginian-Pilot’s Bob Voros (2)

Our growing collection of football preview sections wouldn’t be complete without Bob Voros‘ annual Fantasy Football guide. Those of you who have attended my slideshows have heard my spiel about designers and artists being proactive with their ideas and generating their own content. My former colleague is the poster child for graphics department proactivity with his annual guide. Bob is [...]

28: Up the East Coast with Hurricane Irene, via Sunday front pages (5)

Well. That storm certainly fizzled, now, didn’t it? Naturally, I’m delighted that’s the case. I was so terrified for my poor old house, back in Virginia Beach. I wasn’t happy about evacuating to Atlanta for the weekend. Still, though, at the time we left — Thursday evening — it was the right thing to do. The best-case scenario was always [...]

28: Football preview section: ‘Juicyfruit’ from the Seattle Times (1)

I heard about an extraordinary football section published today by the Seattle Times, so I put the word out that I was interested in getting my hands on pages. Thankfully, I heard from both designer Rich Boudet (left) and assistant sports editor Jon Fisch.   The section is gorgeous, as you’d imagine. Click on any of the pages before for [...]

28: Football preview sections: A tandem of greatness in Lincoln, Neb. (2)

I’ve been asking for folks to send me their football preview sections. Well, apparently, football is big in Lincoln, Nebraska. Did you know that? Go figure. A blog reader who wishes to stay anonymous writes… …Clark Grell, assistant sports editor of the Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star, made yet another fantastic football tab for both area teams and the Huskers. He’s [...]

28: Birthdays for Sunday, Aug. 28

Here’s wishing the happiest of birthdays to three extraordinary visual journalists… Randy Evans is editorial page editor of the Des Moines Register. A 1972 graduate of the University of Iowa, Randy has worked at the Register 37 years, as a reporter, metro and state editor, news editor and assistant managing editor. He took command of the editorial page in April. [...]

27: A golden moment in today’s Weather Channel broadcast from Virginia Beach

I’ve had my back to the TV most of the day, writing up a football special section I hope to post Sunday. So I completely missed this. But thankfully, someone — I didn’t catch who — tweeted it. That’s the Weather Channel’s Eric Fisher, broadcasting live this afternoon from in front of a strip mall in Virginia Beach while a [...]

27: Saturday’s notable Hurricane Irene front pages

You all know my little personal drama by now. Heeding the dire warnings about Hurricane Irene, I took my wife, daughter and assorted animals to the in-laws’ house in the suburbs of Atlanta for the weekend. The University of Missouri’s Jacqui Banaszynski paid my blog post about all this a wonderful compliment last night by tweeting: Terrif use of blog-form [...]