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Charles Apple: The Visual Side of Journalism

 

Archive for November 2012

Number of comments in parentheses

30: Six cool Friday front pages

Here are the six pages that caught my eye during my sweep through the daily archive at the Newseum… — VICTORIA ADVOCATE Victoria, Texas Circulation: 26,531 As much as I love the little paper in Victoria, Texas — I’ve certainly written about it enough — the daily front pages often suffer from a bit of clutter. That’s not the case [...]

30: Birthdays for Friday, Nov. 30

Here’s wishing the happiest of birthdays to two wonderful visual journalists… Stephen Beard is a senior news artist for the Indianapolis Star. A 1997 graduate of Ball State University, Stephen spent two years as night editor of the Journal Review of Crawfordsville, Ind., before joining the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 1999 as a graphics reporter. He moved to the Star [...]

29: Have you ever wondered…

…what a South African Christmas card looks like? Wonder no more. That’s a giraffe, wearing a Christmas tree as a hat. Note the little bluebird holding a string or garland. It almost looks like a fancy earring. The card is by Tracy Paul of Stuff from Africa — a Cape Town-based greeting card company founded by a woman laid-off from [...]

29: How to use a bar chart — brilliantly — as lead art on page one (1)

Someone told me once that bar charts weren’t dramatic enough to make a centerpiece. My counter-argument: It ain’t about the bars — It’s about the data. And if the data is dramatic enough to lead page one, then I can build you a bar chart to lead page one. Today’s case in point: The Register-Guard of Eugene, Oregon, which led [...]

29: To give them credit: It’s a difficult word to spell (1)

Still, there’s no getting around the fact that Appalachian State sophomore forward Jay Canty wore a jersey against Virginia Tech last Friday that misspelled the name of his school. Not cool. Thanks to ESPN’s Paul Lukas for writing about this Wednesday in his UniWatch blog. Unfortunately, we see jersey misspellings way too often. Just a few from my archives: Perhaps [...]

29: Birthdays for Thursday, Nov. 29

Here’s wishing the happiest of birthdays to five talented visual journalists… Beto Alvarez is a graphic artist for San Diego Union-Tribune. A 1998 graduate of Tarrant County College, Beto spent six years as a graphic artist and illustrator for the Dallas Morning News before moving to the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2002. He moved to San Diego in 2010. Find his [...]

28: Edgy cartoonist protests cancellation by Boston alt-weekly

The sequence of events… 1. Karl Stevens — writer and artist of a graphic novel-like comic strip called Failure that’s run, in various forms, in the alt-weekly Boston Phoenix since 2005 — makes fun of a product sold by one of the paper’s biggest advertisers, Bud Light beer. 2. The paper cancels the strip. As Mark Shanahan and Meredith Goldstein [...]

28: If this error harms your credibility, don’t come crawling to me (2)

This is from a couple of weeks ago. But it’s still a great example of the kind of proofreading needs TV news still has that aren’t being met. At the height of the Petraeus sex scandal, the BBC was in the middle of a typical talking-heads segment, when… well, watch the “crawl” at the bottom of the screen. The director [...]

28: A buffet line of infographics on today’s front pages

Today is a day in which the day’s most notable front pages seemed to be ones featuring various types of infographics. ____________ FEVER CHART — DALLAS MORNING NEWS Dallas, Texas Circulation: 405,349 The story today in Dallas: Home prices are rebounding. A bit. Finally. The centerpiece chart on page one today graphs composite home prices over the past decade in [...]

28: Stop the presses: Nothing newsworthy happened Monday

That’s not quite what the New York Daily News reported with today’s cover centerpiece. But close. A big Batman-esque “Ka-Pow!” seems like a strange way to illustrate a violence-free day. But it works. Despite the eyerolling this page will get from my fellow Batman fans, who grow weary of references to the campy old 1960s version where such onomatopoeia was [...]

28: Birthdays for Wednesday, Nov. 28

Here’s wishing the happiest of birthdays to six wonderful visual journalists… Josh Awtry is executive editor of the Coloradoan of Fort Collins, Colo. A 1998 graduate of Hastings College in south central Nebraska, Josh spent two years as a copy editor, entertainment editor and one-man graphics staff at the Independent in Grand Island, Neb. In 2000, he became design director [...]

27: How Indiana’s student paper played tonight’s IU vs. UNC basketball game (2)

Stephanie Kuzydym — a reporter for the Oklahoman of Oklahoma City and a graduate of Indiana University — tweets tonight: Today’s Indiana Daily Student is wrapped with this cover. Click for a larger view: The page was designed by IDS art director Matthew Callahan, I’m told. The reference to “Dakich” is, in fact, the No. 11 shown in that vintage, [...]

27: Cool headline alert

This headline has everything: Puns, alliteration. Plus, it’s accurate. That’s from the Roanoke (Va.) Times. If any of my friends in Roanoke can tell me who wrote that headline, I’d be much obliged. — UPDATE – 10:20 p.m. Night metro editor Ryan Tipps tells us: The headline was written by Tom Carter, one of our amazing veteran copy editors. He’s [...]

27: News flash: According to NBC, Long Island is no longer a part of New York

Check out this map shown during a report tonight by Brian Williams of NBC News. Either Long Island has seceded from the state of New York or the NBC Nightly News needs a copy editor. Or a graphics editor. Map errors are another common TV graphic mistake. Earlier this month, MSNBC identified Wisconsin as “Michigan”… …and NBC’s Today show confused [...]

27: Why the Brooklyn Nets’ scoreboard operator needs a copy editor

Last night’s first meeting in Brooklyn’s Barclays Center between the newly relocated Brooklyn Nets and the New York Knicks was a great one. The Nets won 96-89 in overtime. Here was the opening tipoff, as seen on the giant video scoreboard. See anything strange? Yes, the scoreboard operator had the quarter incorrectly set for “4th.” Those two pictures were close crops [...]

27: Birthdays for Tuesday, Nov. 27

Here’s wishing the happiest of birthdays to three brilliant visual journalists… Julie Frady is a freelance visual journalist based in Long Beach, Calif., and most recently doing some contract work for the features department of the Los Angeles Times. A 1986 graduate of the University of Northern Iowa, Julie spent 11 years as a features art director for the Chicago [...]

26: RedEye creative genius Trent Koland leaving newspapers for the world of advertising

Trent Koland of the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye commuter tabloid announced tonight via Facebook: Big life news that I can officially make official now: I have accepted a position with Leo Burnett and I will be leaving the RedEye. It was a difficult and hard decision to make, but one that I make with great excitement and hope for my professional [...]

26: At least they didn’t find it in the sewer (3)

Submitted for your approval: Sunday’s Miami Herald: The lead story: A “man-eating” crocodile – indigenous to Africa — has been found in South Florida. The story breathlessly tells of how dangerous these creatures are and what a serious threat these “maneaters” pose to the region. Yet, only one African croc has been captured: The one held by the wildlife biologist in [...]

26: Birthdays for Monday, Nov. 26

Here’s wishing the happiest of birthdays to two excellent visual journalists… Mike Jarboe is chief of the copy desk for the Times Union of Albany, N.Y. He also writes a horseracing and handicapping column for the paper. A product of Pennsylvania Military College, Mike spent a few years as a freelance reporter for the Courier Post and the Burlington County [...]

25: Birthdays for Sunday, Nov. 25

Here’s wishing the happiest of birthdays to nine outstanding visual journalists… Jacqueline Bica is a designer and artist for the Jornal do Comércio and Jornal Bem Estar in Porto Alegre, Brazil. A 2004 graduate of the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Jacqueline is also working on her master’s degree. Find her blog here and her Twitter feed here. Jaqueline turns [...]

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