Opening at the fabulous Charlotte Observer

The Charlotte Observer is looking for a news designer who can produce great 1As and metro fronts. If you are creative, energetic, and have lots of ideas on ffective ways to present the news, we need to talk. We're looking for someone with a minimum of five years experience in daily news design. CCI experience is a plus.

The Observer, the largest newspaper in the Carolinas with a Sunday circulation of 274,000, has been a leading institution in the region for more than a century. We have a proud tradition as a crusading newspaper and a national reputation for being well-edited, visually compelling and interesting to read. Our newsroom is a collaborative environment dedicated to helping people grow and achieve their goals. We are a Knight Ridder newspaper now, but scheduled to move to McClatchy Newspapers this summer.

Charlotte is a booming market. It sits in North Carolina's Piedmont, midway between the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Atlantic coast. It is known for its quality of life, three major-league sports - the NBA, NFL and NASCAR - and many other amenities.

Interested? Send a hard copy of your resume and work samples by snail mail to Sarah Franquet, Design Director, The Charlotte Observer,
sfranquet@charlotteobserver.com. (If you are a recent graduate, this is not the job to apply for)

P.O. Box 30308, Charlotte, N.C. 28230. Questions? My email is: sfranquet@charlotteobserver.com.

What is the matter with you people?

Someone, please, for the love of journalism, APPLY FOR THIS JOB!!

http://visualeditors.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4341&highlight=

The Orlando Sentinel is seeking an experienced visual leader to direct the efforts of its graphics department. In this position you’ll coach, manage and evaluate the Sentinel’s team of five graphic artists; set direction and standards for illustration and graphics style; research and create graphics for print and online and work with editors throughout the newsroom to plan the visual storytelling for daily coverage and enterprise projects.

Bo even wants you to know this:

The Sentinel considers experience as well as education. So if you're interested in positions here, don't let the lack of a degree prevent you from applying.

I hear the desperate cries of a great newspaper in need of a graphics director. Let's get on it people!

Alabama Idol!

Scott Walker of the Birmingham News passes on these pages from today:


















Scott writes:

Passing these along (before they show up on eBay!) We thought Birmingham's fourth "American Idol" finalist in five seasons would be today's big news. That was before our scoop about the merger of two major banks headquartered here. Not often we have dueling 100 pt.-plus headlines. At least, Taylor Hicks' "Soul Patrol" got a poster page.

Really nice work, guys.

On a related note, this is exactly the kind of stuff I need more of!! I don't always know when there's big news in your area so if you do something local that's worth noting, send it on to nicole.bogdas@gmail.com and I'll post it here.

Friendly reminder

Ignore the troll. (You know, like I am. *shrug*)

Scaring the bejeezus out of readers

Landlocked hurricane town

Not quite my favorite of the papers playing named-storm roulette, but wanted to highlight the unique news judgement. Under no threat of hurricane, Atlanta shows its NOLA evacuees that they matter.

New Asst. Graphics Editor in Fort Lauderdale

This just in:

Karsten Ivey has been promoted to Assistant Graphics Director and will manage the production of daily and enterprise graphics. During his five years as a Senior Graphics Reporter, Kartsen has led graphics coverage for several award winning projects, including AIDS in South Florida, Judaism and hurricane coverage. HIs multimedia work has also garnered several international awards. Before coming to the Sun-Sentinel, Karsten worked at the Florida Times-Union as the Informational Graphics Editor.Please join us in wishing Karsten continued
success in his new position.

Congratulations, Karsten!

Take this job and...

Lots of moves lately, both in and out of the region. Newsdesigner has a pretty good roundup at his site, but to highlight a couple down here:

Steve Zimmerman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and formerly of the Miami Herald is headed off to the coveted position of sports designer at the Oregonian. His wife got a teaching job out there. Region 3 will miss you, but....

Kristin Synowka will be filling the void by joining the St. Petersburg Times. Kristin is currently at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. She'll be doing sports in St. Pete. Welcome to Florida!

Lastly, I, too, am making a move, albeit a short one. I'll be leaving the Sun-Sentinel for the Palm Beach Post at the end of the month. At the post I'll be doing news planning, features and projects. Don't fret, I'm still your regional director (I know you were on the edge of your seat).

All of these moves mean only one thing: Job openings for the rest of you! In addition to the voids Steve and I will leave at the Sun-Sentinel, there's also plenty of other region 3 opportunities. Head over to snd.org to find your fit in Sarasota, Tampa, Lakeland, Ft. Myers or, of course, Fort Lauderdale (news sports)

You're hired!*

Students!

Don't forget to send in your applications to be a part of SND Orlando's favorite game:

The Intern

This is the last week to enter to win a summer internship at the Arizona Republic, the San Jose Mercury News or the Orlando Sentinel. You can't win if you don't play!

*For a limited time. Full-time job not guaranteed at completion of internship. SND Orlando not responsible for Arizona's "dry heat," San Jose's cost of living or Orlando's hurricane season.

Bluffton Today's Ernie Smith joins blogosphere (or whatever we call it now)

In honor of the launch of Ernie's site I will do three things:

1.) Send you to it: http://stoicboy.wordpress.com/

2.) Send you to the VizEds thread where he's asking for feedback on it: http://visualeditors.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5128

3.) Ask you to e-mail me at nicole.bogdas@gmail.com if you reside in the region and want me to add a link to your own blog in the sidebar at right (as I have done with Ernie's).

Pages of today!

Today we have a couple of smaller papers that have been doing their something-out-of-nothing homework. A nice job by the Sentinel Record in Hot Springs, Ark. The use of color guides the eye and the overlapping dek gives the package some depth. At first I thought I wanted to see a pic of a cell phone, but I think that was handled well in the hed, and its abscence makes for a cleaner package. I definately wish there were a dek on the Montgomery page, but the hed's still clever and the illustration engaging. Since it's not totally clear, what's happening here is this: Alabama schools are no longer allowing teachers to reward students with food like candy or muffins. Yes, the story said muffins. I don't know about you guys but I never got anything nearly as cool as a muffin. On a related note, I wonder how this will affect the study of fractions? I always looked forward to that day where we all got a bag of m&ms in math class, and since it's not technically a reward....

Atlanta's Katrina project begins

Here are some samples provided by News Team Leader Kenny Monteith, who I'm pretty sure was the lead designer on this. Nice work! Check out the serial daily at www.ajc.com!

It's not soda it's pop.

The Tampa Tribune did nice job today with the school vending machine/sugary drinks story. Great headline, too. A pun that works.

AJC in NOLA

Kenny Monteith passes on a preview of a 22-part serial the Atlanta-Journal Constitution is working on. Yes, I said 22-parts. Head over to www.ajc.com and register to view the video trailer of Through Hell and High Water, you'll be glad you did. (Link is in the top center of the page, below the navigation bar.) Basically, the project is about hospital workers in New Orleans after Katrina, but it's certainly more than that. I don't want to give too much away because the trailer is so moving. So, seriously, go watch it. NOW.

Job of the Day from SND.org

Bored designing pages? Sick of getting information to the public? Can't stand that night city editor? Have we got the career change for you:

Selling Handmade Jewellery, lima

Update: this ad has been removed.

Scott Horner named Knight Fellow

Charles Apple beat me to the news--from my own paper no less--so here's a link to his post at VizEds.

For those of you who don't know, Scott is a multi-media extrodinaire. Check out a lot of his work at www.sun-sentinel.com/theedge.

Read the news at the Knight Fellows site here.

Charles notes:

Scott Horner, the assistant graphics director of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, has been awarded a John S. Knight Fellowship at Stanford University for the 2006-07 school year. Horner is one of 12 U.S. journalists and eight from other countries to win the fellowship this year. Scott plans to use his time at Stanford “adapting the techniques of film to improve non-linear narratives,” according to the release.

Congratulations, Scott!!

Cassie Armstrong wants you!

To donate to the SND Foundation silent auction! She writes over at VizEds:

On behalf of the SND Foundation, we’d like to invite you to share in a very meaningful way – by donating items to the silent auction at this year’s annual Workshop & Exhibition in Orlando. The auction is one of the Workshop highlights, and many attendees look forward to the opportunity to take home a piece of visual memorabilia ranging from original artwork to software to consulting services. Artwork that is signed, mounted and framed always fetches a higher price. We are also looking for gifts of electronic gadgets, sports memorabilia, jewelry, books, tickets, etc. We hope you’ll contribute to the cause. The Foundation is the nonprofit research and education effort of SND, providing services such as:

Travel grants and workshop grants to deserving students.

Partnerships with news organizations to provide faculty, support, and instructional materials for training programs that prepare minorities for jobs in newspaper design and new media.

Sponsorship of seminars on key issues in design and journalism.

Contributions to the SND Foundation, because of its status as a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit, are generally tax deductible (in the United States) as charitable donations. We’d be delighted to receive any item you’d like to contribute, sent in along with this form, by July 31 at the address below. On behalf of the next generation of visual journalists, thank you for your support. Send items, along with the form (which can be downloaded from http://www.sndorlando.com/), to:

Joan Andrews

Senior News Designer

Orlando Sentinel

633 N. Orange Ave. Orlando, FL 32801

It has come to my attention....

That perhaps having the blog sectioned (see links at right) isn't the best plan as some of you didn't even KNOW there were links at right. So, I'm going to start posting everything here on this one page, although I'll leave the other pages up for reference--or something. I'll start by wishing Ernie Smith at Bluffton Today a happy belated birthday. It was yesterday.

Happy Birthday, Ernie!