Newspaper Design: Best Front Design

Maybe it's just me, or maybe it's the news itself, but it seems as if newspapers have taken off the gloves when it comes to their front pages. Submitted for your approval:

"It's treacherous out there:" snowstorm coverage from the Beaver County Times.

"Twister:" coverage of a tornado in The Times-Picayune.

"Face of a Killer:" a folo on the Navy Yard massacre in the Philadelphia Daily News.

"6 minutes of horror:" folo on the shooting in Salt Lake City from the Deseret Morning News.

Today's BFD is The Salt Lake Tribune for their over-the-top presentation.

The Tribune skillfully blended their nameplate, a 6-column photo, main headline, and short-form on the hero and the perpetrator. The same level of care was seen beneath the fold with effective packaging of other key elements of the story.

A page like this is rare in America, but hardly unique. Similar pages – with nameplates reversed out of color photos – were published a week ago in The Kansas City Star, six months ago in The Bakersfield Californian and a decade ago in The Virginian-Pilot.

Send similar pages here.

Of course, none of that matters to the readers in Salt Lake and elsewhere who were served by front pages in tune with the tenor of the today's news in their towns. With pages like these, designers are doing their best to connect with readers and potential readers via single-copy sales, rather than merely producing poster pages.

Room for improvement: The Tribune did a good job of separating their lead headline from their nameplate, but the photo was a bit too complicated to serve as a background for these text elements. The examples from Beaver County, Kansas City and Baskersfield demonstrate a better use of this treatment.

By Alan Jacobson, Brass Tacks Design

Last week NYT Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. admitted that he really didn't know whether he'd be printing the Times in five years. Based on recent events, he is wise to admit what he doesn't know and to "Never say never."

Before you say "never" about newspapers, consider this:

Two years ago, Tony Ridder never thought he'd sell the company that bears his name.
One year ago, Gary Pruitt never thought he'd buy Tony's company.
Six months ago, Gary never thought he'd sell McClatchy's "crown jewel" – the Star-Tribune. And certainly not at a half-billion-dollar loss.
One year ago, Dennis FitzSimmons never thought he'd put Tribune up for sale.
Six months ago, Dennis never thought a qualified buyer would be so difficult to find.
We never thought papers like The Boston Globe and The New York Times would cut their newsroom staffs.
We never thought newsroom layoffs and buyouts would become as common as typos.
We never thought a guy named Craig and websites with silly-sounding names like "Yahoo" and "Google" could undermine our main sources of revenue. And we never thought classifieds were so important.
We never thought The Philadephia Inquirer (winner of 17 Pulitzers in 18 years and the biggest paper in America's fifth-largest city) would see its newsroom staff and circulation drop to the size of a secondary market.
We never thought we'd publish our stories for free online before we published them for payment in print.
A year ago, we never thought we'd see bottom-page strip ads on section fronts (unless we worked for a Gannett paper).
Six months ago, we never thought we'd see bottom-page strip ads on front pages.
A week ago, we never thought we'd see display ads on front pages.
We never thought newsroom raises would be tied to newspaper revenue, as they are now at the Boston Globe. (Four months ago, I suggested that newsroom salaries should be tied to circulation, never thinking that anything close would happen any time soon.)