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Charles Apple: The Visual Side of Journalism

 

‘Small papers’ archive

Number of comments in parentheses

Dec. 2, 2011: News-Herald of Del Rio, Texas, redesigns (1)

The News-Herald, a 4,403-circulation daily in Del Rio, Texas — along the Mexican border and maybe 100 miles East of Big Bend — launched a redesign Monday. On the left is a front page from a month ago. On the right is Monday’s debut front.   Editor and Publisher Diana R. Fuentes writes: We may be small, but we have [...]

Nov. 30, 2011: Latest hire by Gannett Louisville design studio: Ian Lawson of Maysville, Ky. (1)

Ian Lawson of the Maysville, Ky., Ledger Independent has been hired by the new Gannett Design Studio in Louisville. You might recall this page that I wrote about last month: Shortly after, Poynter’s Julie Moos also wrote a piece about Ian. Ian told us last night: Not only did you make me feel like a design world rock star by [...]

Nov. 9, 2011: Casper, Wyo., Star Tribune seeks ‘kick-butt designer and editor’ (1)

My old pal Jim McBee of the Star Tribune of Casper, Wyoming, writes: We seek a kick-butt designer and editor to produce powerful news, sports and features pages. We’re looking for someone who can make the whole greater than the sum of the parts. You should: Be able to design with flair and serious journalistic purpose. Be flexible enough to [...]

Nov. 8, 2011: Volksblad of Bloemfontein, South Africa, launches redesign (2)

Volksblad — a 21,025-circulation Afrikaans-language daily based in Bloemfontein, South Africa — launched a redesign today. On the left is Monday’s front page. On the right is today’s launch edition.   Let’s see what I can tell you about the redesign… This redesign was started more than a year ago by Australian-based redesign consultant Peter Ong and then completed by [...]

Oct. 25, 2011: Cool A1 photo? Or world’s largest web refer? (5)

We’ve seen a slew of sideways pages recently. This past summer, for example, I posted a selection of sideways sports pages from the Des Moines Register. We’ve also looked at sideways sports pages by Fargo, N.D., and Boise, Idaho. Here’s a front page from Fond du Lac, Wis., from the old blog. And last Friday, Poynter’s Julie Moos looked at [...]

Oct. 24, 2011: The next two installments of the Victoria (Texas) Advocate’s graphic novel (1)

As we’ve mentioned before, one of my favorite small papers in the country — the 28,300-circulation Victoria (Texas) Advocate — is publishing a supernatural-themed graphic novel this month. Every Sunday, the Advocate runs two full-page broadsheet installments. Parts one and two ran on Oct. 9. Click for a larger view.   Parts three and four inserted Oct. 16.   Parts [...]

Oct. 17, 2011: Wonderful MLK memorial page by tiny Maysville, Ky., Ledger Independent (1)

A number of papers ran nice front page centerpieces today showing the dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in Washington, D.C. Sunday. None, however, did it as well as did Ian Lawson of the the tiny Ledger Independent of Maysville, Ky., circulation 8,174. The man speaking here is Martin Luther King III. And he’s addressing the crowd under [...]

Oct. 12, 2011: Tea Party vs. Occupy Wall Street: A cartoon primer (3)

Here’s a fun way to illustrate the ideological differences between the modern-day political extremist “grass roots” movements. This is written, designed and illustrated by Wesley Watson, special projects coordinator of the Casper, Wyo., Star-Tribune. In it, you’ll find a quick description of both the Tea Party movement and the Occupy Wall Street movement. I’ve uploaded this at extra-high resolution. So [...]

Oct. 12, 2011: Redesign fail: The Burlington County Times of Willingboro, N.J. (39)

The Burlington County Times — a 27,057-circulation daily in Willingboro, N.J. — launched a redesign Tuesday. On the left is a front page from August. On the right is today’s second-day front.   Now folks, you know how hard I try to keep things positive here in the blog. And you know how much effort I expend extending positive reinforcement. [...]

Oct. 11, 2011: Joplin Globe — a small paper that did heroic work this year — seeks a page designer

When we met Brent Fisher — design editor of the 24,642-circulation Joplin Globe in Joplin, Mo. — in St. Louis a couple of weeks ago, he asked us for help in recruiting a new designer-slash-copy editor. As always, the blog is eager to help. Especially if we can help put an eager visual journalist into a spot where they’re needed. Google [...]

Oct. 10, 2011: Twin Falls, Idaho, presents the anatomy of a typical (somewhat exaggerated) press release (4)

Our next interesting example of news presentation comes from the tiny 18,603-circulation Times-News of Twin Falls, Idaho. Editor Josh Awtry — a design guy from way back — did something cool on his Sunday opinion cover. He tells us: For a paper our size, we’re still really lucky to have that as a weekly cover — it’s allowed us to [...]

Oct. 7, 2011: A redesign to merge two small papers in Illinois (1)

Jeff Ruble, designer and copy editor of the newly-renamed JG-TC in Mattoon, Ill., writes: I wanted to pass along a few examples of a project I worked on for the past few months at the Journal Gazette and Times-Courier. Though it’s nothing groundbreaking or terribly original, it was a great learning experience. We consolidated on Sept. 26 the two newspapers [...]

Oct. 7, 2011: One more Friday baseball playoff cover

One of the more interesting headlines I’ve seen on a baseball story this week: As a born-and-raised redneck from South Carolina, I love it! Nick Kaiser — core editorial graphic designer for the Booth Mid-Michigan papers — writes today: Thought you might want to check out the Flint Journal cover we did with the Detroit Tigers as the main. Luckily, we [...]

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. 29, 2011: A quick look at today’s baseball playoff pages

Well! While many of we visual journalists are en route to St. Louis for the Society for News Design conference, the regular baseball season ended with some of the most memorable fireworks ever. A  quick roundup of playoff pages… — ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH St. Louis, Mo. Circulation: 196,232 The hometown paper here in town was in a bind this week. [...]

Sept. 25, 2011: From garbage bins to Playboy bunnies: Six notable Sunday front pages

A look at the day’s most notable front pages, as seen today at the Newseum… — THE TRIBUNE San Luis Obispo, Calif. Circulation: 34,718 The big story today in San Luis Obispo: The city council passed a law specifying that garbage and recycling bins must be stored in a place where they’re not visible from the street. Might not sound [...]

Sept. 19, 2011: How to get a cool illustration for page one

You have a story — potentially for page one — that needs an illustration, as opposed to a photo. But you work at a relatively small newspaper. No news artist. No freelance illustration budget to speak of. What do you do? Well, you get your editor to whip up something, of course. That’s what the Times-News of Twin Falls, Idaho [...]

Sept. 16, 2011: How the tiny little Lenoir, N.C., News Topic covered a sensational murder trial (8)

Forget Casey Anthony. There’s a huge story in North Carolina. A  huge gruesome story. A 10-year-old girl went missing last fall. Not just any little girl — a cancer survivor. She had lost a leg and her hearing to the disease. A ransom note turned up, but it was proven to be written by her stepmother. So immediately, the investigation [...]

Sept. 16, 2011: Two terrific Friday headlines

My morning romp through the Newseum resulted in a couple of great headlines I thought I’d show you. The first is this one is from Politico and involves backlash to the startling book excerpts — and other recent stories — involving Sarah Palin. I asked Politico designer Bill Kuchman who wrote that head. He replied: If I remember correctly, that [...]

Sept. 15, 2011: Front-page picture of the day (2)

Once a year, perhaps, nearly every newspaper under a certain size runs a story about their local animal shelter. Adopt the cute puppies or kittens before they’re put to sleep. And with every one of these stories runs a photo of a very cute animal. But have you ever seen one this cute? If that doesn’t tug at your heartstrings, [...]

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