Archive for February 2012

29: How a visual journalist gets married in 2012 (1)

A little over two months ago, I brought you the story of Larry Buchanan, visual columnist for McSweeney’s, and the way he graphically proposed to his sweetie Erin Wright. Erin was represented by the glasses; Larry by the flip-flops. Very cute. So how does one follow up a proposal like this? By getting married on Leap Day, of course. Larry [...]

29: R.I.P. Amid Capeci, design director of Entertainment Weekly

Amid Capeci, design director of Entertainment Weekly, has passed away after a long fight with cancer, friends report today. He was 51. A 1983 graduate of the University of Hartford, Conn., Amid spent four years as deputy art director of Esquire before taking over as art director of Rolling Stone in 2004. He was named assistant managing editor for design [...]

29: A wonderfully entertaining advert for the Guardian’s open journalism

A brilliant bit of advertising was released today for the U.K. Guardian‘s “open journalism” initiative. Enjoy: Thanks to Tyler Dukes, managing editor of Duke University’s Reporters Lab for tweeting this today.

29: Would you read this on a boat? Would you read this with a goat?

Friday marks the 108th birthday of Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as children’s book writer and artist Dr. Seuss. In order to mark the occasion, Lorraine Eaton — food writer for the Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk — decided to see just what it’d take to create green eggs and ham. And she did it, too. See? Now, quite frankly, that’s a [...]

29: A tongue-in-cheek A1 package in Casper, Wyoming (1)

Here’s the situation: In order to draw attention to its growing concern about how the Federal government operates these days, the Wyoming state legislature proposed a bill to study how it should respond in case the U.S. government should collapse politically or economically. At the top of the list of proposals: Buy an aircraft carrier. Despite the fact that a) [...]

28: A few outstanding pages from last weekend, courtesy of Gannett’s Nashville Design Studio

I’ve been watching with fascination as the Gannett design studios ramp up their work this year. Only 16 Gannett newspapers are currently being produced by the five studios in Nashville, Louisville, Phoenix, Des Moines and Asbury Park, the company said in its recent annual “10-K” report (and then re-reported by Jim Hopkins of the Gannett Blog). The project is running [...]

28: Speaking of ‘why they need a copy editor’…

Tbt* — the youth-oriented free tabloid published by the Tampa Bay Times of St. Petersburg, Fla. — put this high school sign out on page one this morning. Now, comes the sad part: In the story on page eight, the school’s literacy coach names the school custodian by name as the culprit. Lane DeGregory reports: The custodian apologized to the [...]

28: How the Plain Dealer covered Monday’s high school shootings (6)

As you’ve heard by now, there was yet another horrific school shooting Monday. A total of five were shot. One died Monday. Two more passed away today. — PLAIN DEALER Cleveland, Ohio Circulation: 243,299 The Plain Dealer responded today in a big, big way with an awesome front page led by an awesome photo by staffer Thomas Ondrey. After the [...]

28: Not a wise choice for a headline

Angelina Jolie wore a dress to the Academy Awards the other night with a slit cut in it all the way up to here. When she took the stage to hand out an award, it was difficult not to notice that dress. That’s a legitimate Oscar night story. And indeed, you probably read about Angelina’s dress in several places yesterday. [...]

28: Birthdays for Tuesday, Feb. 28

Here’s wishing the happiest of birthdays to six wonderful visual journalists… Jason Clayworth is a political reporter for the Des Moines (Iowa) Register. A 1999 graduate of Drake University in Des Moines, Jason interned with the Cedar Rapids Gazette and the Record-Herald of Indianola before signing on with the Register in 2000. Find his Twitter feed here. Jason turns 35 [...]

27: There’s just no way this headline wasn’t intentional (2)

This wickedly funny headline comes from Second Front, the political blog of the alternative online magazine known as Weld for Birmingham. I spent some time poking around that site last night and I couldn’t find any other headlines that struck me nearly as edgy as that one. So perhaps this was purely a coincidence. Or not. Most likely not. — [...]

27: A look at today’s Academy Awards front pages (3)

Oscars night is always huge for lovers of fine entertainment everywhere. Here’s a look at some of today’s notable Oscar ceremony front pages from Los Angeles and around the country… — DAILY NEWS Los Angeles, Calif. Circulation: 89,990 The Daily News placed the five individual big winners across the top of its front page and led that front with a [...]

27: Seven notable Sunday front page displays

I was on the road this weekend, so I didn’t get much of a chance to spend as much time as I’d like looking though the gallery at the Newseum. There were a number of pages Sunday, however, to which I’d like to draw your attention… — SIOUX CITY JOURNAL Sioux City, Iowa Circulation: 33,837 The most interesting package of [...]

27: Birthdays for Monday, Feb. 27

Here’s wishing the happiest of birthdays to two fabulous visual journalists… Tarina Coetzee is content manager for Interact Media Defined, a publisher of magazines and holder of conferences and exhibitions in a variety of fields, based in Johannesburg, South Africa. A 1987 graduate of the University of the Free State, Tarina spent several years as a sub-editor and designer for [...]

26: Birthdays for Sunday, Feb. 26

Here’s wishing the happiest of birthdays to three excellent visual journalists… Anne Carothers-Kay is an editor for Patch.com in Urbandale, Iowa, in the suburbs of Des Moines. A 1979 graduate of the University of Nebraska, Anne spent 27 years at the Des Moines Register as a reporter, legislative editor, community editor, assistant metro editor and health editor. She left the [...]

25: A fun illustration on the front of today’s Des Moines Register

My favorite part of this illustration by my old friend Mark Marturello: The little “12:00″ on the front of the videocassette recorder etched onto this tombstone. Fun stuff today on the front of the Des Moines Register. The story it accompanies is by another old friend, Dan Finney. Here’s how the Register played it on page one today: Average daily [...]

25: Birthdays for Saturday, Feb. 25

Here’s wishing the happiest of birthdays to three brilliant visual journalists… Konstantinos Antonopoulos is an interactive infographics designer for Lambrakis Press SA of Athens, Greece, publishers of a news site called in.gr. Previously, Konstantinos was an editor, artist and videographer with various TV organizations and then spent nearly four years with Exedra, a sports newspaper also based in Athens. I [...]

24: Yet another thing you just can’t do with an iPad

Well, you could try. But I doubt it’d help. Norfolk, Va.-based writer and author Lisa Suhay writes: Self-defense expert David Sgro is visiting Norfolk from his ministry in Guatemala where he, his wife and 13 children care for orphans and those living in extreme poverty. The former Special Forces trainer has had to improvise and develop his own special tactics [...]

24: More fun with charts from Fox News (1)

Looks like Fox News is at it again. Check out this chart that was broadcast last Monday. There are so many things wrong with it that I barely know where to start. First, the horizontal axis is off. From left to right, we’re supposed to see a passage of time. But the distance between “last year,” “Last week” and “current” [...]

24: My thoughts on the new Associated Press logo (2)

I realize I’m a day late with this story. But, in a way, I was on the story Thursday morning. I just didn’t realize it at the time. First the news: The Associated Press unveiled a new logo Thursday, writes Andrew Beaujon of Poynter. On the left is the previous logo, which the AP used since I was a sophomore [...]