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Charles Apple: The Visual Side of Journalism

 

‘Odd juxtapositions’ archive

Number of comments in parentheses

May 2: The county’s solution might be closer than you think

The citizens of Lake County, Ohio, have a problem. They need a bridge demolished and removed. Suggestion: Call the local FBI office. I’ll bet they know where to find someone who’ll take out the bridge for you. And cheap. Yes, those two stories appeared side-by-side on the bottom of today’s News-Herald of Willoughby, Ohio, circulation 33,340. Thanks to my anonymous [...]

April 23: Why I hate sticker ads (5)

I dislike running two odd juxtaposition items back-to-back. Or three over two days. But this one — from yesterday’s edition of the Times-Telegraph of Tyler, Texas — is already going viral on Facebook. The story, obviously, is about alcohol sales and is entitled “Liquid Assets.” But the second half of the second word is hidden by that sticker ad. The [...]

April 23: How does a juxtaposition like this happen, anyway?

Do these editors and designers not look at their pages as a whole? Do they think that little one-point rule is going to make it clear that the big photo does not belong with the big headline? Wow. That’s truly, truly bad. That’s this past Saturday’s edition of the Sunshine Coast Daily of Maroochydore, Queensland, on the northeast coast of [...]

April 22: Seeing this unfortunate juxtaposition is indeed believing (3)

An anonymous blog reader writes: The Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn decided to advertise Catholic schools with a special Sunday supplement in the New York Daily News. To promote it, on Friday they had stickers placed on the front page of the paper. This is what the sticker ad looked like. One little problem, of course. Did you see Friday’s Daily [...]

Feb. 17: Today’s fun juxtaposition (1)

This is reportedly in today’s San Francisco Chronicle: Sometimes with these juxtapositions, you have to wonder if it’s intentional. I’m sure this one isn’t. But if I were in charge of selling Jockey brand underwear, I’d have called around to see if I could place an ad next to this story. If the news business ever starts doing this, however, [...]

Feb. 10: Another amazing web site ad juxtaposition (1)

Our pal Yuri Victor tweets: Best ad juxtaposition ever. Ever. Internet over. Yep. That’s one for the Hall of Shame. That was Gawker, earlier today. Don’t look now, but it’s even worse now (4:40 p.m. EST): Geez. The Twitter icon holding the gun tacked directly beneath the Walking Dead logo. Surely that’s not intentional. Find Gawker here. Find a lot [...]

Feb. 4: For your consideration…

So, what is this particular animal colliding with? A shovelful of snow? Oh, right. That’s wild art. And another of those odd — and sometimes amusing — juxtapositions we need to be more aware of. Average daily circulation of the Jackson Hole Daily is 9,200. The front page image is from the Newseum. Of course.

Feb. 1: Odd juxtaposition in this week’s New York magazine

Diego Sorbara of the New York Times copy desk spotted this odd pairing from the new issue of New York magazine and posted it via Twitter Monday night. On the right is the start of a Frank Rich profile of Mitt Romney, with a headline that references religion. As you can see. On the left: An advertisement for the Broadway [...]

Jan. 31: Truly horrible juxtaposition today on the Gainesville (Fla.) Sun web site (2)

Surely you remember that horrific crash on Interstate 75 in Florida this weekend. Yesterday, we looked at page-one coverage of the accident — which claimed 10 lives and injured 20 more. Toronto Globe & Mail financial columnist David Milstead today directed my attention to ongoing coverage on the home page of the 29,024-circulation Gainesville (Fla.) Sun. A number of angles [...]

Jan. 19: Yet more recent — and amusing — juxtapositions

My recent posts on news and advertising juxtapositions have resulted in a whole new round of submissions by the best blog readers in the world: You guys. First up is this one in Dagens Nyheter of Stockholm, Sweden, that country’s largest morning newspaper. On the left is the ongoing story about the cruise liner accident in Italy. On the right: [...]

Jan. 18: Guardian media blogger: Journalists are ‘overly sensitive’ to juxtapositions

Roy Greenslade, the media blogger for the U.K.’s Guardian, writes about that hilarious cruise ship photo juxtaposition his paper made on its Monday’s front page: Nick Sutton, who edits Radio 4′s The World at One and What The Papers Say, asked – by tweet – whether it was a deliberate act by the paper. And deputy editor Ian Katz tweeted [...]

Jan. 17: Yet another amusing cruise ship juxtaposition (4)

Ingrid Muller — formerly of the Hartford Courant and the Denver Post and now a freelance designer and marking consultant in Denver — posts on Facebook today: News design lesson no. 1,327: Every once in a while, it’s good to step back from your page and see how everything works together. Sure, that is a dream holiday. If you’re Aquaman. [...]

Jan. 13: A really bad ad placement

“Hey, fellas, I have an idea! When we’re done tinkling on these dead suspected Taliban operatives, let’s piss on Mitt Romney, too!” Insert your own “trickle down” wisecrack here, please. This is why buying ads at YouTube might be a bad idea. Unless you have absolute control over in which videos your ad might appear. Yeah: Very bad. So take [...]

Jan. 12: Poor juxtaposition atop today’s Tacoma, Wash., News Tribune (2)

Dominic Holden of the Seattle-based alt-weekly the Stranger spotted something today in the Tacoma News Tribune that gave him pause. It’s there, in today’s lead story: Holden questions the pairing of a breakout box about child porn with a story about gay marriage. It’s a simple, honest mistake, Holden believes. But, he says, it’s… …a sloppy mistake and the sort of [...]

Dec. 19, 2011: Today’s horrifying advertising juxtaposition (2)

This horrifying advertising juxtaposition comes to us from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. These two full-page ads ran on facing pages today. On the left is an advertisement from Backstoppers, which is an organization that helps families of officers killed in the line of duty. On the right? A sporting goods store is peddling handguns. Thanks to St. Louis TV station [...]

Dec. 1, 2011: A fun juxtaposition

Screencapped this morning at the Salt Lake Tribune web site: “Giving Tree”? Looks more like a “self-sacrificing tree.” It’s just a juxtaposition, of course, In fact, there was a huge windstorm in the area earlier today. Find the Salt Lake Tribune web site here. Thanks to the person — who I won’t name — who posted this on Facebook.

Oct. 25, 2011: When a sticker ad creates an awkward — but hilarious — juxtaposition

Submitted for your approval: Last Wednesday’s Daily Iowan, the student paper at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. That’s a PDF of page one. Meaning that’s the way the editorial staff intended you to see page one that day. However, the advertising folks had other plans. They sold one of those sticky-note ads for the top of page one. [...]

Oct. 5, 2011: A couple of appalling — and amusing — page-one juxtapositons (1)

Neither of these two news juxtapositions are fresher than a month or so, but what the heck. It’s time for something fun here in the blog. And, oddly enough, they’re each caused by the same problem: Wild art as lead art on A1, while there’s also a lead story on A1 that provides an amusingly inappropriate counterpoint to the picture. [...]

Sept. 16, 2011: Financial advice from the Virginian-Pilot (1)

Forget the stock market. Instead, put your money into dirt and debris. Today, in fact, is the time to buy dirt and debris, according to this morning’s Virginian-Pilot. I hate to keep picking on these guys. But damn. They’re making it so easy with stuff like this. I’ve picked on these obtrusive ads in the Pilot here and here. And [...]

Aug. 1, 2011: Truly bad news vs. advertising juxtaposition

Meet page 12 of today’s tampa bay times, the free, youth-oriented tabloid published daily by the St. Petersburg Times. Okay. Looks like a fairly interesting story, with a pretty decent headline across the top. So what’s the problem? The problem is the display copy in the ad on the facing page.   Hmmm. Not good. Not good at all. In [...]

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