Today, most papers led with the tornado in Alabama, each looking remarkable similar. None of the Alabama papers did a particularly outstanding job. These efforts from
The Birmingham News and
Opelika-Auburn News were typical. Similar presentations were seen in papers hundreds of miles away, including this one from the
RepublicanAmerican. Even the staid
Washington Post had comparable play of the lead photo from the storm. More dramatic presentations were seen in the
Albuquerque Journal, Akron Beacon Journal and the
Rocky Mountain News.
A late entry from the
Dothan Eagle (thanks, Scott) shows that one Alabama paper went big with the tornado. Unfortunately, the headline (Devastation) did not say the same thing as the image (Chaos). In that sense, the Rocky made more sense. Noun and verb must agree, both in words and images.
Ahoy! Readers of
The Boston Globe were treated to a sight more commonly seen in
The Virginian-Pilot. From the "Thank Goodness" department,
tbt reported that the hiccuping girl is finally cured.
Link got in your face. The
StarTribune measured up.
The Salt Lake Tribune had a high-impact folo on the shooting there. A tighter crop on the man with the phone might have given this package an even better ride, more closely binding the words and image.
The Alabama storm got more coverage, but the midwest storm got more dramatic presentations. The
Quad-City Times package was informative, but the Des Moines Register was the newspaper with the best front design today because it packed a bigger wallop.
The Register delivered on the fundamentals: high-impact, declarative headline, story-telling image, information secondary heads and effective single-copy presentation.
The
Duluth News Tribune went really big with the storm – so big that they forced the subject of their lead photo beneath the fold, reducing the effectiveness of their single-copy presentation.
The Gazette had some fun with their lead headline – do you think readers will recognize this as a fart joke?
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