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Charles Apple: The Visual Side of Journalism

 

‘A look at the day’s fronts’ archive

Number of comments in parentheses

May 5: A look at this weekend’s Kentucky Derby front pages

Both Lexington and Louisville went with illustrations on the covers of their Saturday newspapers to advance yesterday’s 139th running of the Kentucky Derby. The Lexington Herald-Leader put this wonderfully graphic illustration by Chris Ware on the front, showing roses falling upon the downs. Meanwhile, the Courier-Journal of Louisville went with a photoillustration of a trainer who had five horses running [...]

April 19: A wild, wild night in Boston

In a city that’s had its share of hell this week, last night was, yes, a night from hell. By now, you’re probably aware of what happened. The FBI released surveillance photos of two “suspects” of the Boston Marathon bombing on Monday. The pictures were beamed around the world on TV and the internet and ended up on page one [...]

April 16: A look at today’s best and not-quite-the-best Boston bombing front pages (6)

As you’re already aware, the Boston Globe and its photography staff rose to the challenge of yesterday’s bombings during the Boston Marathon. Pictures by staffers John Tlumacki and David L. Ryan appeared in papers around the world, bringing the horror and the emotion home for readers everywhere. Here’s a quick review of some of the day’s notable front pages… — [...]

April 9: Today’s NCAA basketball championship pages

Here’s a brief look at today’s NCAA men’s basketball championship pages… — COURIER-JOURNAL Louisville, Ky. Circulation: 154,033 Huge photo with everything else pushed off the front page: Check. Picture shows players celebrating a national championship beneath falling confetti: Check. Punny, celebratory headline: Check. Looks like the Louisville paper today did everything it needed to do and did it well. The [...]

April 8: Today’s NCAA Championship preview pages

We’re well into April now, and you know what that means: March Madness is nearly over. Tonight, Michigan and Louisville play for the NCAA men’s basketball championship in Atlanta. Here’s a look at today’s pages advancing the game… — DETROIT FREE PRESS Detroit, Mich. Circulation: 232,696 The Free Press goes all-out once again with a spectacular photoillustration of the Wolverines [...]

April 7: A look at today’s Final Four pages (1)

Here’s a quick look at the day’s Final Four pages… — DETROIT FREE PRESS Detroit, Mich. Circulation: 232,696 The Free Press put Michigan’s tight, five-point victory over Syracuse into the skybox this morning, with a big, red word that seemed to sum up the entire game.   The page was designed by Joe Cybulski. The picture was by Julian H. [...]

March 29: Special editions are a slam-dunk today in ‘Dunk City,’ Florida

Were there any NCAA Tournament games held last night? Are there any games scheduled for tonight, other than the Florida vs. Florida Gulf Coast matchup in Austin? Except for a few misguided souls from Syracuse, Florida Gulf Coast is the team that’s generating most of the buzz in my social media feeds. This scrappy little team from a school that [...]

March 15: One more Pope page. And it’s a heck of a page.

Blog reader Elizabeth Cuevas saw my roundup of Thursday’s Pope front pages and added a comment: Hola! I would like to know your opinion on this cover, thanks. Here’s the page she linked to, from La Razón of Monterrey Mexico City. Click for a larger view: To answer your question, Elizabeth, I think the page is outstanding. Rather than go with [...]

March 14: A look at today’s Pope front pages (3)

[Freshly updated with a few more credits that rolled in throughout the day Thursday...] As you know, we have a new Pope. He’s from Argentina and is the first Pope ever from the Americas. As you might imagine, papers in Argentina went crazy with the story today. But you can spot right away why I’m reluctant to spend a lot [...]

Feb. 13: Were my expectations too high for the nation’s front pages?

Got up this morning. Went directly to the Newseum to review this morning’s State of the Union pages. Got back in bed. Well, it wasn’t that bad. But sure enough, I wasn’t impressed with the day’s offerings. Perhaps I was too harsh, however. The Newseum, in its Top Ten Front Pages of the Day, gushed over this page by the [...]

Feb. 12: A look at today’s most outstanding Pope Benedict XVI pages (1)

Huge news broke Monday morning: The Pope is resigning. Pope Benedict XVI will be the first pope in 598 years to resign, as opposed to dying in office. This move — along with the baggage the Catholic church is carrying around these days — made for huge play atop page one of today’s New York Times. That picture by L’Osservatore [...]

Dec. 25, 2012: A look at today’s best Christmas front pages (2)

There was an awful lot of great work out there today. Really, too much to try to take note of. However, let’s give it a try anyway, shall we? Take special note of my picks of the ten best pages of the day, mixed into the categories below in no particular order… __________________________ PHOTO-DRIVEN FRONT PAGES — No. 1: DENVER [...]

Dec. 21, 2012: You heard it here first: The world did NOT end today

…So far, that is. Were you surprised? Believe me, you’ll know when the world comes to an end: The Chicago Cubs will win the World Series first. Here’s a look at some of the day’s most notable Mayan “apocalypse” front pages… __________________ LET’S GET THIS ONE OUT OF THE WAY EARLY, SHALL WE? The Sentinel of Santa Cruz, Calif., quoted [...]

Dec. 2, 2012: Eight front pages; eight superlative uses of design tools

My daily spin through the Newseum produced a handful of front pages you really ought to see… ___________________________ GREAT USE OF POLICE TAPE PHOTO — STAR TRIBUNE Casper, Wyo. Circulation: 24,791 Something many of us run into when there are horrific events in our communities: Building a front page with the best art we can get: Police tape surrounding the [...]

Nov. 30, 2012: 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 [...]

Nov. 22, 2012: Today’s ten best page-one Turkey Day presentations (1)

Lots of newspapers built elaborate Thanksgiving presentations for page one today. Here’s a look at my ten favorites… — GASTON GAZETTE Gastonia, N.C. Circulation: 24,354 What’s Thanksgiving all about? It’s about family. It’s about being grateful what what the year has given you. But it’s also about shopping. Or, to be more precise, preparing for a long day of Black [...]

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. 16, 2012: President Obama in Sandy-stricken Staten Island: ‘He feels our pain’

The front of today’s Staten Island Advance features an enormous picture of President Barack Obama hugging the woman who lost her two young sons to Hurricane Sandy. The lead photo is by official White House photographer Pete Souza. I haven’t heard back yet, but I presume this page was designed by Claire Regan, assistant managing editor of the Advance, who [...]

Nov. 11, 2012: Three outstanding projects today that you should know about

Now that election season has come and gone, it’s time for newspapers to open up with both barrels and pour out whatever terrific enterprise journalism they’ve been working on this fall. There are lots of examples of terrific projects on front pages today, including two that were kicked off today with outstanding display type-based front-page centerpieces — what we often [...]

Nov. 7, 2012: Three brief case studies for wonderful Election Night design

First of all: Sorry, there will be no national roundup of front pages today. Here’s why: On big news days like today, the Newseum suffers from web sites big and small scraping their front pages and even hotlinking to them. The results have been slow access times (that was certainly the case for me today) and server outages. So I [...]

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