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Charles Apple: The Visual Side of Journalism

 

‘Kansas City Star’ archive

Number of comments in parentheses

March 30: A look at Saturday’s March Madness pages (2)

Well, it’s all over for America’s favorite Cinderella team. Florida Gulf Coast University was stomped 62-50 by the University of Florida Friday. I think many of us enjoyed the on-court antics of the cool guys from FGCU. I’m not sure who I’ll pull for now… — NEWS-PRESS Fort Myers, Fla. Circulation: 54,761 After an amazing run of front pages and [...]

Feb. 20: How the K.C. Star covered last night’s huge gas explosion

A huge explosion ripped Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza last night, destroying a restaurant and injuring 16 people. At last report, one person is still missing. Here’s how the Star responded this morning. Click for a much larger view. Front-page designer Charles Gooch tells us: The main photo was a great shot by Tammy Ljungblad. The decision to put it [...]

Nov. 17, 2012: A look at today’s Twinkie apocalypse front pages (1)

You’d think that Hostess bakeries announcing it would shut down in response to a strike was the end of the world or something, from the play it got Friday in the digital media and today on front pages around the country. Come on. Twinkies will be back on shelves in no time. Someone will buy the Twinkie trademark. Here’s a [...]

Nov. 15, 2012: Five features treatments for the new ‘Breaking Dawn, Part 2′ movie (3)

I’m not a fan — at all — of the Twilight movie series. But then again, you’d expect that: I’m not a teenaged girl. At whom the entire Twilight franchise seems aimed. But young people are a demographic we should be reaching out to. So papers are wise to play up the new Twilight movie — Breaking Dawn, Part 2 [...]

Nov. 4, 2012: A look at today’s election-oriented front pages (4)

Is it just me or has this presidential election cycle seemed way too damned long? Either way, it’s finally nearing its end. Here’s how my old friend Mark Marturello illustrated this today for the Des Moines Register. Let’s take a look at the day’s most notable presentations featuring the election on the Sunday before Election Day… — DES MOINES REGISTER [...]

Sept. 30, 2012: Seven papers that surprised and delighted their readers today

Surprise and delight. Two things we should be doing to our readers every day. And what better way to do that then with spectacular visuals on the front of their Sunday newspaper? Here are seven great examples of this today. And one that, apparently, didn’t go quite so well… — DES MOINES REGISTER Des Moines, Iowa Circulation: 101,915 The big [...]

Sept. 23, 2012: Election graphics and illustrations on Sunday’s front pages

You can tell we’re in the thick of an election year. A number of papers led their front pages today with election-themed graphics or illustrations. — BEACON JOURNAL Akron, Ohio Circulation: 88,040 Papers across Ohio teamed up for a new poll that was released today. The poll shows President Barack Obama is leading the state with 51 percent of the [...]

Sept. 21, 2012: Following up on the KC Star’s “true crime” pulp-style illustrations

Back on Sunday, we admired the “true crime” pulp-novel approach taken by illustrator Eric Hibbeler — a recent graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute  — for the start of a six-part series in the Kansas City Star. The series has now run its course. For days two through five, the series was indeed displayed on page one, but as [...]

Sept. 19, 2012: A look at today’s most interesting ‘47 percent’ pages

Before today slips totally away from us, let’s take a quick look at the day’s most interesting front pages in which Mitt Romney‘s “47 percent” video was the lead story. — BOSTON HERALD Boston, Mass. Circulation: 108,548 Nice choice  — of what I presume is file art — by the Boston Herald today. Looks like Mitt is ducking something being [...]

Sept. 16, 2012: A ‘true crime’ pulp novel illustration for A1 of today’s K.C. Star (1)

Today, the Kansas City Star kicked off a six-part series about a mysterious 2010 murder in Independence, Mo. The murder is unsolved. Enough intrigue has been uncovered — and hinted at — to fuel a soap opera. Yet, the case is stalled. The Star chose to present Part One of its series as if it were a “true crime” pulp [...]

Sept. 13, 2012: Are question headlines really effective on a day like this?

As you can see from these headlines, there are a lot of questions out there involving the attack this week on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya. What I don’t understand is why so many newspapers today led with question headlines. Hey, I’m not the world’s best headline writer myself — as you can see every day here in the [...]

Aug. 19, 2012: A big day for illustrations on page one

Today seemed to be a great day for illustrations on page one of newspapers around the nation… — CLARION-LEDGER Jackson, Miss. Circulation: 57,710 I loved this school-related illustration afront the Jackson, Miss., paper today by Martha Stroud of the Gannett Design Studio in Nashville. However, I was struck with a huge case of déja vu. Sure enough, back in June, [...]

July 11, 2012: Run the picture big and get the hell out of its way

Front page designer Charles Gooch of the Kansas City Star writes today on his Facebook timeline: Sometimes, the best route a designer can take is to just get the heck out of the way. Here is the Star‘s front page today, following last night’s baseball all-star game: That great photo of local fans cheering the only appearance by a Royals [...]

July 4, 2012: Today’s five best Fourth of July front pages (5)

Fireworks, hot dogs and American flags. What did you put on page one today? Here’s a look at today’s five best Independence Day-themed front pages, as found in the daily archive at the Newseum. — #5 KANSAS CITY STAR Kansas City, Mo. Circulation: 200,365 In the category of kids running back flags, this wonderful centerpiece photo by staffer Keith Myers [...]

July 1, 2012: A baker’s dozen of interesting, illustrative page-one treatments

Oh there was some fabulous work out there on the front of the nation’s newspapers today. Let’s take a look at a few of the more illustrative ones, shall we? — KANSAS CITY STAR Kansas City, Mo. Circulation: 200,365 The story in Kansas City today is about how a four-year-old girl was found malnourished, and taken from her mother. A [...]

May 28, 2012: Today’s 11 best Memorial Day front pages

Here’s a look at the best page-one Memorial Day treatments, as found at the Newseum… — OMAHA WORLD-HERALD Omaha, Neb. Circulation: 135,282 The World-Herald today took a look back at the Cold War with this front page file photo of a soldier watching a B-52 returning to Guam from a bombing mission in 1966. The picture refers to a 12-page [...]

March 7, 2012: A look at today’s front-page Super Tuesday graphics (2)

Lately, I’ve done a lot of writing about election charts. Especially regarding what you might and might not want to try to show, graphically, during the primaries. I’m finding a lot of papers out there building huge map displays when, quite frankly, the story at this point of the election cycle isn’t about states or electoral votes. The story is [...]

March 1, 2012: A look at today’s notable tornado front pages (2)

Wow. Tornado season started early this year. Storms ripped through the Midwest late Tuesday… …and early Wednesday. Tornado reports are the red spots on these maps from the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center. In total, 13 were left dead and scores were left homeless. Here’s a look at notable tornado aftermath pages from around the region. ———————————- BEST PAGE [...]

Aug. 9, 2011: A quick look at Tuesday’s stock market front pages

It’s awfully late tonight, but I hated to let the day pass without drawing your attention to a few notable front pages, as found today at the Newseum… — BEST USE OF FEVER LINE It may have been a little difficult to go with the standard huge red fever chart on page one today, given that so many papers led [...]

July 17, 2011: The best of today’s visual journalism: ‘Carmageddon,’ space junk and movie heroes (1)

Here’s a look at some of the day’s more notable visual journalism offerings, as found at the Newseum… ———————————————- LOS ANGELES’ ‘CARMAGEDDON’ The big story of the day in Southern California was the mother of all traffic jams — “Carmageddon” — expected by the temporary closure of Interstate 405. Which kind of fizzled, according to most reports. — LOS ANGELES [...]

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