“Events” Items

Creating a Foundation to Support SND

One of the challenges of any journalism association is funding.  Not just year-to-year funding but long-term support.  In 1992 SND created the Society of Newspaper Design Foundation to become the research and educational arm of the society. I was named the foundation’s first president. It was my first attempt at non-profit fund-raising.

Beginning in 1993, some educational programs currently conducted by SND will be transferred to SND Foundation. Among those initially targeted to become Foundation projects: The Directory of Newspaper Graphics and Design Internships, Research Grant program, Travel Grant program and the Student Awards for Excellence in Newspaper Graphics and Design.

We didn’t do as much as we dreamed, but it was a start and the foundation continues today.

 

The Digital Future: The Next Technological Steps

At the request of John Oppedahl, my boss at Phoenix Newspapers, I wrote a very long memo about technology and the company’s newspapers, The Arizona Republic and the Phoenix Gazette.  The memo was 25 pages.

Technology influences the newspaper in many different ways: From offset presses controlled by computers to database programs that help circulation, independent components become part of an interdependent system.

This connection is the strongest between the newsrooms and production. We are linked, tied electronically by common systems, common needs and common problems. In the same way siblings share bloodlines, editorial and production share an electronic network of bits, bytes and data.

I wanted to outline what technologies the company needed to invest in.  I wrote about pagination, text editing systems, color systems, advertising needs and more.  I framed the report on the idea of a new newsroom.

More important than relationships between computer systems and more interesting than the technological feat of pagination is the way the newsrooms are organized to produce the newspaper. Using new technology to produce a newspaper in the same method utilized 20 years ago or 5 years ago is a tremendous waste of money, manpower and creativity.

The top of the memo has lovely saying: “Man plans, God laughs” -Old Yiddish saying

The complete memo can be read in this PDF.

Great Honor for a Student Journalist: Kilgore Award

In late summer, I received notice that I had won the  Barney Kilgore Award sponsored by the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation [later renamed as the Society of Professional Journalists Foundation].  The award included $2,500, which would be presented at the SDX national convention in November in Chicago.  The convention would present an opportunity that would change my life. Learn more about Barney Kilgore here.

In a statement of journalistic philosophy that accompanied my entry, I wrote “a good newsman and a good newspaper will provide the news with creativity, honesty and integrity.”  I also said:

A good newspaper must be aware of the changes in its community.  It must be able to present facts without fear or bias and interpret the news so that its readers can understand their every-changing and complex world.

Those words still work, 45 years later.  I also wrote:

For some people, newspapers are the only to government.

Sadly, too many people in too many cities have no daily newspapers and hence little access or oversight of their government officials.

 

The Graphics Editor Takes Charge

The Washington Journalism Review ran a story about how newspapers were turning to graphics [and graphics editors] to give readers new ways of getting information.  The late 1980s and early 1990s were exciting time for graphics editors, thanks in part to the influences of USA Today and the Chicago Tribune.

Improved presentation of information is clearly a response to market demand. At the most successful papers, graphics are grounded in journalism and not in decorative arts. Content, not design, comes first, graphics editors say.

One of the article’s authors, James K. Gentry, interviewed me for the article and I ended up being the lead for the story.  That is pretty heady stuff, even for me.

In 1974 assistant picture editor Howard Finberg took on the task of making the Chicago Tribune more visually appealing. “I was clearing the field of rocks and stumps,” he says of his pioneering position as graphics editor. “I don’t think anybody else was doing anything remotely similar at the time.”

Top management wanted more visual awareness from the newsroom staff. Finberg says they accomplished this through “daily evangelizing.” He wrote his job description as he went along. A good deal of what evolved was acting as liaison between the newsroom and art department.

What interests me about the article 30 years later is how the newspaper graphics editor job was a catalyst for change.  Graphics editors were the change agents in many newsroom.  Today, change agents, if there any left, are working in online departments.

Graphics have mostly disappeared in today’s newspapers — victims of lack of space, fewer artists and, perhaps, the disappearance of the graphics editors job.  Gentry and his co-author, Barbara Zang, conducted a survey of newspapers about the graphics editor role in newsrooms.  It would be interesting to do another survey to see what remains of the “informational graphics revolution.”

Gentry and Zang concluded the article with an interesting observation about management:

Redefinition of the manner in which news is presented will demand newsroom managers who can function in a constantly changing environment. “The better managers adapt, the others don’t,” says Dave Doucette of the Salinas Californian. “The success of managers, of papers, means the ability to change.”

Finberg, the self-proclaimed old man of graphics editors. says the next wave of graphics editors must be able to edit tighter and make decisions faster. “We have to make the best use of finite space,” he says. “Maybe a whole new type of editor is needed for the future.”

I guess we still need that new type of editor.

Chicago Tribune Launches Graphics Service

The launch of the Chicago Tribune Graphics Service [CTGS] provided an opportunity to learn about customer service and satisfaction.  With real money on the line and a desire to grow the number of clients, thinking beyond the Tribune’s own graphics propelled me into a touch of entrepreneurial journalism. It was my first “start-up” experience.

The graphic service is sold to daily newspapers across the country. The graphics all are illustrations that appeared in the Tribune, They are sold  through the Tribune Company Syndicate lnc. (formerly the Chicago Tribune-New York News).

Each week we would select 12 to 20 graphics that would be printed on slick paper that aided reproduction and express mailed to clients. In the first nine months of the service, the newspaper and the syndicate split $60,000 in revenue [$150,000 in 2013].

The in-house publication of the Tribune, the Little Trib, did a nice story about the CTGS.  I liked how they named the graphics desk staff.

But the early success came from hard work — from all those involved in the service: in the city newsroom, Finberg, Kathleen Naureckas, day graphics coordinator, and Marty Fischer, night graphics  coordinator, now had to consider not only which graphics would be best for the Tribune, but also be alert to which graphics should go into the package to subscribers.

Editor’s note: The timeline entry is taken from an article published in September, 1981. The timeline date refers to the launch of CTGS.

Pagination: ASNE Asks the Experts

In the mid- 1990s, pagination was the hot topic for editors.  Most newspapers were starting on their journey to digitally produce the newspapers via computer terminals.  The American Society of Newspaper Editors {ASNE] and the Society of Newspaper Design [SND] collaborated on a project to help newsrooms deal with pagination issues.  I was one of a dozen experts who answered questions for a special report.

 

Poynter’s First E-Learning Course: A Test of Potentials

As Poynter’s Presidential Scholar, one of my tasks was to look at the viability of e-learning.  This fit within my portfolio of exploring the intersection of journalism, technology and training.  To help me [and Poynter] better understand the potential of online modules, I created one.  A chapter from Chip Scanlan’s textbook, “Reporting and Writing: Basics for the 21st Century” became the course material.

We adapted the text into a e-learning module that ran on the eCollege platform and asked the Poynter’s summer fellows to take the module and share their reaction.

We had three questions:
1. How does one build an effective e learning course?
2. What would be the commitment by the faculty [and others] to present the course?
3. What would be the reaction of the students to an online teaching experience?

I wrote a long memo to various Poynter folks, including Jim Naughton [president] and Karen Dunlap [dean] and included the results of a survey of the 15 summer program students who took the class.

…almost all [80%] said the course material was either effective or somewhat effective. Only one student had a negative response to the material. The effectiveness of the presentation was rated lower, with 60% of the students saying the course was effective or somewhat effective.

Of course, we didn’t have time to hire a designer, so the presentation was basic.

I believe our first online course was a success.

I believe that Poynter should quickly and confidently move to develop a series of online classes.

… I also want to acknowledge the support and enthusiasm of Chip Scanlan for this project.

 

Poynter NewsU Technology Scope, Version One

With this memo, Robin Sloan and I outlined the technology that would power The Poynter Institute’s ‘s e-learning platform, News University.  NewsU needed to “have a database at its core.”  That was true then; it is still true.

NewsU.org will be the Web portal to journalism training resources and programs. It will have a database at its core—one that will include both static web resources (resources for trainers, self-teaching tools) and date-sensitive seminars, and be able to sort both by category, organization, geographic location, date, and more.

Our second requirement involve search, ideally searching for other e-learning training journalists could take.  Our goal was to build a portal of training.  As NewsU grew, I realized that there was little need for a portal as there were few other e-learning resources available to journalists.

Changing The Chronicle’s Visual Image. Or Not.

In late 1986, I wrote a memo to the paper’s publisher (Richard Thieriot) and editor (William German) urging a discussion about the design of the San Francisco Chronicle.  It was a memo deeply rooted in understatement as both Thieriot and German saw little need to change the appearance of the newspaper. I urged a gradual approach, an evolutionary method of updating the typography and design of the newspaper.  Part of the argument for change involved addressing the weakening economic aspects of the paper.

However, now is the time in which we must look ahead and decide on the type of newspaper we wish to present to our current readers over the next several decades. And we need to decide on what type of paper
will be necessary to attract new readers among those who live in the Bay Area but do not read The Chronicle.

While change would eventually come to the paper, the reaction to the memo was mostly silence.

I did like making this point about the importance of design:

While design cannot keep readers, but it can attract them to the paper and let the content and editing hold them. We are missing out on readers who move to the Bay Area from other parts of the country who are accustomed to a more organized, easily readable design in their daily newspaper.

To the casual reader, the images in the memo aren’t very dramatic.  However, if you knew the Chronicle from that period, you would remember they were still using wavy rule boxes around photographs.  Yuck. Kudos to John Sullivan for his work on the prototype pages.

Mario Garcia on The Arizona Republic Redesign

The Arizona Republic’s redesign was an interesting exercise in trying to find a way to please a publisher who had the dream of making The Republic a New York Times-style  newspaper.  That meant he wanted a subdued approach to headlines and design and NO color.  Putting it in positive terms: classic design.

When the publisher of The Arizona Republic, Pat Murphy, commissioned me to redesign his newspaper, he had brought to our discussion a clearly defined blueprint of what he wanted his newspaper to look like: “Make it elegant,” he said. “Also let it look like a classic, reliable newspaper, one that readers will feel comfortable and safe with.”

Truthfully, I hated it.  Mario Garcia didn’t care for it either. He was very kind in an article he wrote for Newspaper Techniques, the monthly newsletter of IFRA.  He was also said some very kind things about me.

The Arizona Republic, is totally paginated (triple-I), which facilitated the idea of a half-column concept. Into the third month of the redesign, the newspaper hired an assistant managing editor for graphics, Howard Finberg, who came from The San Francisco Chronicle, and had served as graphics editor of The Chicago Tribune, as well. With his impressive credentials and experience, he became a full partner in the process, refining the use of informational graphics, guiding the every day logistics of the redesign, and hiring new designers for the different sections.

 

Arizona Republic Announces Redesign (and My Hiring)

The Arizona Republic’s newsroom newsletter, EN, announces the hiring of Mario Garcia to redesign The Arizona Republic.  And, burying the lede [grin], my hiring.

TWO MORE STEPS have been taken in our continuing effort to improve The Republic: A contract with Dr. Mario Garcia of the Poynter Institute to redesign the paper, and the hiring of Howard Finberg of the San Francisco Chronicle as our new assistant managing editor for graphics.

Garcia’s redesign of The Republic will begin in July with research to understand how readers and editors perceive the newspaper. He will be here the week of July 6. The schedule will give him a chance to live up to his nickname, “‘the Human Hurricane”.

I just love the irony that years later I would be working at Poynter, although Mario would be gone. The world is a small place.

Early Online Experience: JForum on CompuServe

In the mid-1980s, I joined one of the first online services, CompuServe.  [Previously, I had been a member of The Source, but that’s a different post.] One of the reasons I liked CompuServe was its journalism area, called JForum.  Jim Cameron was truly an online pioneer and created a place for journalists to virtually meet and share experiences and questions.

Jim and I started chatting online and eventually I helped bring the Society of Newspaper Design into the JForum fold as special interest group.  Jim also made me a “sysop” which meant I had special online privileges, most of which I have forgotten.  One of the things I did to help JForum was to make slides of various screens.  I used a newly purchased MacPlus to capture the screens.

It is interesting to note that Sam Donaldson, an ABC TV correspondent, was an early adopter of online services.

Perhaps My First Poynter Faculty Appearance

While I can’t be sure, I think this is the seminar where I did one of my first Poynter teaching sessions.  I know I attended Poynter as a participant earlier than this date.  It is all a bit cloudy.   Here’s the description:

“Newspaper Design Seminar at the newly named Poynter Institute for Media Studies January 29-February 4, 1984. The emphasis of this seminar will be the layout and design of news pages’ with special emphasis placed on preparation of graphic packages and material for the 1984 Presidential elections.”

The seminar was led by Mario Garcia.  A few years later, he and I would be work on the redesign of The Arizona Republic.  Other faculty included: Phil Nesbitt, Michael Keegan, David Griffin, Michael E. Foley and Roy Peter Clark [who is still at Poynter].

It is interesting to note the prices:

Cost for the seven-day seminar is $400 plus hotel and meals. We have reserved a block of rooms at the St. Petersburg Beach Hilton Inn at $61 per night for single accommodations.

In 2013 dollars, the seminar would cost: $897.28; the hotel would be $136.84.  The invite letter is here.

When You Are the ONLY Graphics Editor

About a year after starting the Chicago Tribune’s graphics desk, I wrote a very long and detailed memo about what those duties.  The memo was for the lucky [or unlucky] editor who had to fill-in for me during vacation or other absences.  In some ways, it was a mini-handbook about how to create graphics and work with the artists and the news desk at the newspaper.  The memo also include information about to do the promotional banners across the top of the front page; we called them “overlines”.  It wasn’t the best memo I’ve ever written.  In fact, it reads a bit breathless and a bit high-handed.  However, it does have some good advice:

Each graphic must relate to the story it accompanies, either directly from information in the story, or indirectly with information only touched on but not expanded upon. Check first for sense; can this material be best explained in a graph, a map, a chart, a table? Or should it be an insert paragraph? The goal is to make readers understand–not make reporters have an easier writing time or supply “art devices” for makeup.

Perhaps I should have pushed harder at the idea that graphics would make it easier for reporters to do their job.  It might have made the graphics revolution easier.