Day Two, and America is still stuck on Veterans Day. The
Herald Times Reporter said "Veterans Day celebrated." Thank goodness we still have newspapers to tell us what day it is – for now, anyway. But a calendar might be just as useful.
To its credit,
The Virginian-Pilot handled this non-news event with remarkable elegance, even more so than the more typical photo from another photojournalism powerhouse, the
Rocky Mountain News. The
KC Star's solution was touching – literally. The photo from AP was very powerful, as seen in
USA Today and some other papers. But
Newsday added insult to injury by adding a mug shot of the man responsible for this vet's injury. Shame on you, Newsday.
In contrast, even with an Air Force base in Cheyenne, the
Wyoming Tribune Eagle stuck to its guns and went after impulse buyers with stories and images above the fold that are more about sex and money than the military.
Link had a excellent typographic solution. The
Pocono Record led with the spike in gun sales by the Second Amendment lunatic fringe. The
Waco Tribune-Herald asked a question in a way that might pry 50 cents from an impulse buyer – that's the way to drive single-copy sales. In contrast, the above-the-fold headlines in the
Hartford Courant are virtually meaningless and invisible to passersby.
In Chicago, the
Tribune's front page looks more like a lifestyle page – albeit a very handsome lifestyle page – than the big-city daily that it is. The
Sun-Times leads with a $25,000 GIVEWAY. WWSTS? (What would Studs Terkel say?) This is what happens when newspapers get desperate, as both the Trib and Sun-Times face financial default. For the sake of journalism jobs and journalism in Chicago, let's hope these strategies pay off.
The newspaper with the best front design today is the San Jose Mercury News for its package on the mortgage meltdown.
The Merc's package hits on all cylinders:
- The subject is highly relevant
- The headline is large and engaging
- The image (in this case, a map) is both meaningful and conveys useful information in an efficient way
- All the elements of this page – headlines, labels, text, map, sidesbars, refers, etc. – are carefully scaled and arranged to reflect the hierarchy of information
- Last and not least, it looks good.
In contrast,
The Orange County Register's package on the same subject didn't go as far.
Send an email direct to Brass Tacks Design.
Click to see all the BFDs in the archives.
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