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Charles Apple: The Visual Side of Journalism

 

‘Innovative ideas’ archive

Number of comments in parentheses

May 12: Forget the ‘feel good’ Mother’s Day story. This one is heartbreaking and powerful. And important.

As you might imagine, the Plain Dealer today led with a look back to the huge story of the week, adding details, updates and perspective to the horrifying story on the three teenaged girls who were kidnapped and then held in chains and ropes for up to a decade. These stories are powerful and I recommend them highly. But what [...]

April 1: A little something for the kiddies on page one of the Easter Sunday paper

George Spohr, editor of the Sentinel in Carlisle, Pa., writes this weekend to share an idea with us. He tells us: My designers wanted to hide Easter eggs within the A section of Sunday’s Sentinel. My first instinct was “Hell no,” but the more I thought about it, the more I thought, “Why not?” We set some rules about where [...]

March 29: More wisdom from J. Ford Huffman… but no plea to wear sunscreen

Sixteen years ago, a very nice columnist for the Chicago Tribune named Mary Schmich wrote a rambling — yet profound — list of tips for graduating classes of the future. Three interesting things about this column… 1) A couple of years later, it was recorded by record and movie  producer Baz Luhrmann and turned into a minor radio hit: Everybody’s [...]

March 19: Are news designers ‘just’ designers? Or are we ‘visual journalists’? (2)

Several years ago — back when I was a younger and hungrier graphic artist and graphics reporter for the News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C. — those of us in the graphics department would debate the question: Are we journalists or artists? I didn’t think there was any doubt what I was. But I found myself a little disturbed at [...]

Feb. 28: Take inspiration from anywhere you can find it

Late last summer, Jane Burns of the Wisconsin State Journal traveled to Washington, D.C., where she happened to take in a baseball game at Nationals Park. She wrote via Facebook: This press box in D.C. made me smile because I am reminded of the story that Val Monson, best writer in the world, once told. Val started in sports and [...]

Feb. 25: The coolest thing I’ve seen lately: Journalists empowering themselves

While I’m on my cross-country trek this week, a number of visual journalists around the country are lending a hand by telling us what is the coolest thing they’ve seen lately. Today, my old pal Jim McBee — news editor of the Casper, Wyo., Star Tribune — tells us he loved this video consultant Robb Montgomery shot of the West [...]

Feb. 8: Tiny paper gets huge results with… what? A complex multimedia map? No way! (1)

Tiny newspapers can’t do multimedia and they can’t do video. Right? Wrong. Make sure you watch that full-frame, so you can see all the data points on the map. Reporting and narrating a multimedia video — featuring Google Earth Pro — is the editor of the Fort Collins Coloradoan himself, Josh Awtry. Josh writes today via Facebook: Yes, this is [...]

Jan. 28: More about that big space shuttle Challenger front page by USA Today

Had I known I’d be writing about that groundbreaking USA Today front page from the space shuttle disaster in January 1986, I’d have sent a request to former USA Today managing editor Richard Curtis for his memories of that day. I did this afternoon, however. Richard’s reply: I couldn’t have told you that the anniversary was today, but I do [...]

Jan. 25: When the going gets tough, the Air Force turns to… reality TV?

Hugh Lessig of the Newport News, Va., Daily Press reports today that the Air Force is swamped with video footage shot from drones over battlefields in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen. All that footage is piped to “a secretive, intelligence-gathering hub” at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, where analysts working horrible 12-hour shifts comb through it all. But the problem [...]

Jan. 23: Columbus Dispatch format change to ‘compact’ scheduled for Monday

The Columbus Dispatch‘s on-again, off-again conversion to a “compact” is on again. Finally. Originally scheduled for September and then delayed by technical issues, the switch will take place with Monday’s paper, the Dispatch announced this past weekend. Last fall, the Dispatch kicked off an enormous promotional campaign to make readers aware of the changes planned in their daily paper. But [...]

Jan. 11: Because I was asked: More (and deeper) thoughts on that NYT sports page

My old Virginian-Pilot colleague Rich Quinn writes to inquire further into that New York Times sports front that everyone was talking about yesterday: What are your actual thoughts on the page, other than brilliant? You always preach that design should highlight and inform. This does one, but not the other. As a sports editor buddy of mine notes, this edition [...]

Jan. 10: Can you guess what book this cover is for?

I’d never guess it in a million years. Although once you know, it seems nearly obvious. That’s the cover of a new edition of George Orwell‘s 1984. In fact, both the author and the title are there, debossed in the cover. Which is then redacted with thick black boxes. Mark Sinclair of the Creative Review blog writes: This brilliant, censorial [...]

Jan. 9: The future of broadcast journalism?

No huge satellite truck. No technician pulling cables to and fro. Just a reporter. Broadcasting live via Skype. With an iPad. On a tripod. That’s BBC political editor Mark Devenport, broadcasting live Monday night from the rotunda of city hall in Belfast, Ireland. Devenport explains in a BBC blog: I’ve broadcast live from the Rotunda before – during council elections [...]

Jan. 9: Why don’t we have newspaper marketing campaigns like this in the U.S.?

Almost four years ago, consultant Ron Reason wrote an interesting article on why newspaper marketing sucks so badly. That piece struck a chord with me. Why are our external marketing campaigns — as well as our own “house ads” — so mediocre? We certainly don’t seem to have our heart in those efforts. Speaking as an industry, I mean. So [...]

Jan. 6: Fargo (N.D.) Forum prints special section for football fans who traveled to championship game in Texas

You know all about zoned editions. But what about when your local team plays for a national national title 1,000 miles from home? That’s the problem the Forum of Fargo, N.D. faced — and solved — this weekend when North Dakota State University defended its NCAA Division I Football title in Frisco, Texas. The Forum printed a 14-page special section [...]

Jan. 3: Another bold move by the Daily Emerald: Replace its home page for a day-and-a-half (1)

You might recall from my Monday night post how the Daily Emerald — the student paper at the University of Oregon — set out to “redefine how college journalists cover football” with their coverage of tonight’s Fiesta Bowl. Another piece of that effort fell into place this afternoon when the digital-first, print-only-twice-a-week paper pushed its normal home page to the [...]

Dec. 28, 2012: Seattle Times publishes pictures-of-the-year project as an iBook

Denise Clifton, mobile development specialist, for the Seattle Times, tells us: This year, my colleagues in the photography staff at The Seattle Times have taken an interactive approach to our pictures of the year – presenting them in a book designed for the iPad. This is the first interactive book that The Seattle Times has produced, and it’s a beautiful [...]

Oct. 13, 2012: SND Cleveland: About that amazing presentation by Amy Webb… (1)

It sure was interesting following along with this year’s Society for News Design conference via Twitter today. Seems like each speaker had wonderful points to make and wonderful insights to share on the ever-changing field of news presentation. What really sent everyone into overdrive this afternoon, however, was the closing keynote address by Amy Webb, founder of the Webbmedia Group, [...]

Oct. 12, 2012: I have seen the future. And the future is a McDonald’s. (3)

Last night, I took the family out to dinner. To McDonald’s. Admittedly, I didn’t take them there for the fancy cuisine — although, yes, the chicken selects and fries were nice and hot. I took them there because of a story that ran in Sunday’s Virginian-Pilot about a brand new McDonald’s that opened up near Lynnhaven Mall here in Virginia [...]

Oct. 11, 2012: Clever networking: These folks ‘get it’

Did you see that thing I wrote the other day, urging — everyone, really, but especially young visual journalists — to get business cards made up for this week’s Society for News Design workshop in Cleveland? This guy was already set. Not only does he have business cards, but they’re funny business cards. I doubt anyone he meets will forget [...]

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