Which paper would you buy? A study in content

From a design standpoint I prefer the Sentinel. (full disclosure: I did not work last night so I had nothing to do with said page, however my boyfriend did shoot the picture and I'm quite proud of him.) But I'm not sure that's what's selling these papers. What is?

Today's page of the day

Up in St. Lucie, Florida, a bunch of kids got busted with alcohol and drugs in their prom limo. Apparently, some kids asked for breathalyzer tests and were refused, while others told the truth about what happened and were subsequently punished. They're talking explusion for the kids, but yesterday's news was that some of the studens from, shall we say, more prosperous families are not being punished at all. Some students who weren't even in the limo staged a protest across the street from the school, too. Now, the Stuart News does a good job of keeping this on the front page by using the tried and true document-highlighting centerpiece. Yeah, it's been done, but it doesn't always work. Nice work, Stuart.

Let's pretend it's yesterday...

Three pages of inspiration for you. From Wednesday.
First we have Bluffton Today with the headline we all wished we could write.
The Daily Reflector has a good example of short form at the top of 1A.
And my favorite, The Opelika-Auburn News with a new twist on the overdone iPod homages. Plus you should all be aware of the story they're covering because, like gas prices, it sucks. CNET News has a good story and graphic about which states are charging tax for music downloads.

State legislatures and tax officials, eager to find new ways to boost government spending and curb budget shortfalls, are eyeing the burgeoning market for digital downloads as a potentially lucrative source of revenue.
A CNET News.com analysis shows that 15 states and the District of Columbia now tax downloads of music, movies and electronic books. Some high-tax states such as California do not levy the same charge on iTunes downloads, but that could soon change.

Writing short wins awards

Poynter has an interview up with Brady Dennis, night cops reporter at the St. Petersburg Times. Dennis won this year's Ernie Pyle award for human interest writing. You're probably wondering now why I'm posting this on a design blog, but this wasn't just any old human interest story. Close your eyes for a moment and imagine a typical human interest story. Now imagine yourself designing it. Ugh, right? Requesting space, aruging about trimming two inches of the 80-inch narritive. Assuring the photo department you will do thier work justice despite the monstrosity in front of you. Well, here's what Dennis did. His feature, or series of them rather, was titled 300 Words. Yup. That's about it. Each piece highlighted a "regular" person and came in under nine inches. About once a month Dennis and photographer Chris Zuppa get together to tell their stories on the SPT's local front.

Dennis says in his interview:

I learned it doesn't take 3,000 words to put together a beginning, middle and end. A good story is a good story, no matter the length. And sometimes the shorter ones turn out [to be] more powerful than the windy ones.

That said, there's a risk of sounding like I'm advocating super-short stories with no traditional nut graph. Not so. I believe no matter how long or short the story, people should know why it is important and worth their time. It's not enough just to paint a pretty picture. We must strive to tell them something about the world that matters, to be journalists and not simply storytellers. Hopefully, in a non-traditional way, "300 Words" does that.

Refreshing and award winning! Read the Poynter story here. Read Dennis' work here and here, and if anyone from the SPT would like to send along some examples of how this was handled on your local fronts please pass 'em on to nicole.bogdas@gmail.com.

New Orleans votes

Welcome back to me!

I return (finally) following a trip to the Columbia, Mo., where I was a judge for this year's SSND contest. Winners have been posted here. If you can get your hands on any of them, you're lucky people. You're also lucky to get your hands on any of the fine designers at the University of Missouri. Except for Rick Metzroth. Savannah already snapped him up! Check out the MU student portfolios here.

New section debuts in Atlanta

Will Alford of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution passes on some pages from their new Better Heath section that debuted this week. Plus--a sneak peek at next week's cover. See my original post on the topic here.

Wednesday's cover illustration by Dale Dodson
Next week's cover photos by Bita Honarvar
Cover designs by Will Alford
Inside page designs by Evelyn Ortega and Cindy Deifenderfer

I know how you feel, Tennessee

Weathering another bout of storms, The Tennessean pulls off this awesome page.

Powerful tornado pages

Pages of the day

It's so nice to see the women's championship game get similar play to the men's. Nice work!

Also, check out sportsdesigner.com for pages from the men's game (and soon from the women's? Nudge, nudge, guys.)

Tornado follows

To donate, mail a check payable to the American Red Cross with an "American Disaster Relief Fund" notation in the memo line to: 2201 Charlotte Ave., Nashville, TN, 37203.

To make a credit card donation, call 250-4264 or log on to the agency's Web site at www.nashvilleredcross.org and click on the "Donate" link.

Tornadoes in the South

As a veteran designer of weather-related disaster pages, I can attest to the impressiveness of these pages. The amount of information packed into each of these fronts while still maintaining navigation and impact is not an easy task. This is one of the few times that newspapers that can be a true public service, and each of these publications--two with special sections!--are providing just that with photography, maps, refers and stories that impact their communities. Everyone without power and or a home must be grateful that they have these papers to keep them informed of the situation. I hope all the employees made it through the storm.

Page o' the day

Not just an eye-catching a design, but an interesting story, too.