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Nitty-gritty design top ten

Ed Henninger design

Ed Henninger
Design

ED HENNINGER is an independent newspaper consultant and the director of Henninger Consulting.

Website: www.henningerconsulting.com
Phone: (803) 327-3322

WANT A FREE evaluation of your newspaper’s design?
Just contact Ed: edh@henningerconsulting.com | (803) 327-3322

IF THIS COLUMN has been helpful, you might be interested in Ed’s books: “Henninger on Design” and “101 Henninger Helpful Hints.” With the help of Ed’s books, you’ll immediately have a better idea how to design for your readers. Find out more about “Henninger on Design” and “101 Henninger Helpful Hints” by visiting Ed’s website: www.henningerconsulting.com

A client recently asked me to put together a presentation for his newspapers on nitty-gritty details that can make or break a design.

I came up with just a bit more than a couple dozen. But thinking about them more, I’ve now narrowed them down to a top ten.

My thinking is that any one of these can make your design better, but leave one out and your design suffers.

So, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty:

  1. Measure in picas and points. Sure, continue to express the depth of ads and photos in inches. But for everything else, picas and points are the best way to measure elements and spacing.

 

  1. Align text to a baseline grid. This gives your newspaper a more planned, polished and professional look. And, once your designers master use of the baseline grid, it will make editing and design go more quickly and more easily.

 

  1. Use headline hierarchy. This helps readers navigate your pages more readily by giving them a sense of which stories are more important. And remember that headline hierarchy is more than just about size. It also goes to factors such as font, length, number of lines and placement on the page

 

  1. Use a dominant photo. Give readers one photo that leads the package. Placing a number of two-column by four-inch photos on your sports front just creates clutter.
  1. Control story length. Ask readers: They’ll tell you they will only read about 12 to 15 inches of a story … and then their attention wanes and they look for something else. Train your writers to keep stories within the 12-to 15-inch limit.
Perhaps the most important part of the nitty-gritty Top Ten: Make deadline. Always.
  1. Segment stories If you have a story that requires more length,look for ways to break it up. For example, a story about five candidates running for a county judge position need not be one article that’s 50 inches long. It can be five pieces, each about 10 inches, and packaged together on the page.

 

  1. Control color use. There’s a temptation to use color just because you have it. Let’s not. Proper, controlled, subtle color can give your paper a refined, more credible feel. Poor use of color just makes you look cheap.

 

  1. Control content placement. Readers expect to find specific content in the same place from issue to issue. Obituaries, for example, should not move from page 2 in one issue to page 6 in the next and page 3 in another. Consistent placement is key.

 

  1. Use consistent design. Consistent design also is important. Keep your design elements, such as column sigs and standing heads, reflective and consistent throughout your paper. Again, this helps to bolster your credibility.

 

  1. Make deadline. Always. Plan, communicate and focus your efforts so that everything — everything — is done by deadline. Failure to make deadline often results in cutting corners and hurrying your design efforts. And consistent failure to make deadline will result in a design that is consistently poor.

There’s my top ten. Would you add anything to the list? Sub something else for one of these? What do you think?

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Teaching an old(ish) dog …

Kevin Slimp technology

Kevin Slimp

Kevin Slimp is director of the Institute of Newspaper Technology.

Email questions to him at
kevin@kevinslimp.com

I remember the first time I spoke in Chattanooga, Tenn. It was 1994 and I had just developed a new way to create and transmit newspaper ads.

Preparing to speak from the stage at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo Hotel, I looked over the audience of 150 or so publishers before hearing a voice from the front row. It was Joe Stagner. We became friends quickly.

Joe’s health took a bit of a turn for the worse a few years back, so he hasn’t made it to many conventions, although he has made the trip to Nashville for a few breakfasts that have become a tradition for me and a few of my publisher friends.

So when I first received an email from Joe recently, asking how to place an html widget on an Adobe Muse Web page, I wondered where he learned about Muse and what in the world he was using it for.

That’s when he told me the news. He had just designed a website for his newspaper and he was ready for it to go live.

This I had to see.

Joe is the publisher of Your Community Shopper, the community paper in Ardmore, a town on the border of Tennessee and Alabama. His paper is a member of both states’ associations. I looked at his website, yourcommunityshopper.com, and quickly realized that Joe was on to something. Honestly, it looked great.

“Joe,” I asked, “where did you learn to design a website in Adobe Muse?”

“The truth is I learned it on your show,” he was quick to reply.

“What show?” I asked.

“Do you remember when you sent out an email a couple of months ago, saying you would teach us to design a website in Muse in 40 minutes? That’s where I learned it.”

First, I reminded Joe, the webinar lasted 70 minutes, a minor lapse in memory. I wanted to know more.

He continued: “That short instructional video covered the very basics of creating and posting a website. After watching it two or three times I decided, ‘I can do that,’ and our website was born.”

I asked if anyone was helping him with the site.

“I am doing everything myself now. Patricia (Coulter) and I do pretty much everything for the paper and the website. Patti (Stagner) does all the page layout after all the pieces are ready for assembly. I have a part-time saleswoman Denise, and a part-time clerical worker, Ann, and two delivery people, Joy and Darby Barnes. That’s the whole staff.”

I took a quick look at Joe’s previous website, which was available in archive. The new look, designed in Muse, was a significant improvement.

I asked Joe if it wouldn’t be easier to use a vendor to create his website. He seemed pretty determined to get the job done on his own.

“It is time-intensive now, while I’m learning the software. However, as I put less new material on the site and build a way for people to subscribe to the newspaper, I think the site will become much easier to update. I’m still deciding what I want to be standard information they can count on seeing every week and what will not be there. I’m starting to find that less is actually more.”

I don’t know that I’ll recommend to many of my newspaper friends that they take the time to design their own sites from scratch, but Joe seems pretty happy with his results.

I asked Joe what he likes best about Adobe Muse, which comes with the standard version of Adobe Creative Cloud software.

“All the functions that work like InDesign make it easy to get started right away. Access to the type library is great. I am sure that I will find many more things that I like as I learn more about everything that is available to me.”

“So you really learned that from one video?” I asked.

“I sure did. I had to watch it two or three times, but I got it.”

I could hear the grin in his voice.

“Just imagine,” I said,” if we’d had two hours!”

I’m proud of Joe. If you’d like to see his creation, take a peek at yourcommunityshopper.com. Be sure to tell him Kevin says, “Hey,” while you’re there.

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When, how to put the boss in an ad

John Foust Advertising

John Foust

Advertising

 


John Foust has conducted training programs for thousands of newspaper advertising professionals. Many ad departments are using his training videos to save time and get quick results from in-house training.

Email for information: john@johnfoust.com

Sometimes it’s a good idea to feature a boss in an ad. Sometimes it’s not.

Two ads come to mind. One shows a plumbing company’s president seated at the head of a conference table, surrounded by a handful of employees. He is the only one looking at the camera, and they are leaning toward him, eyes fixed on a document he is holding. (Maybe it’s a flow chart showing their titles and job responsibilities.) Names are listed in the caption, and his is in bold type. The headline – too trite to mean anything to anyone who is not pictured – reads, “Leading the field.” Clearly, the underlying message is, “Look at me. I’m the boss.”

The other ad features a large, close-cropped photo of a construction CEO standing next to a pickup truck. He’s wearing a hard hat and his expression suggests that the photo was shot as he was talking. The headline is in quotes and emphasizes the fact that he is involved in all of his company’s projects – and even devotes time to travel to clients’ job sites. The body copy provides details about his commitment to make sure that things are done correctly.

That’s a stark contrast, isn’t it? The first ad says, “I’m important.” The second one says, “You (the customer) are important.”

Putting bosses in ads can be tricky, because bosses are bosses. They ultimately control their companies’ ad budgets. So when you get an idea – or a request – to put the boss in an ad, things need to be handled with care. Here are some points to keep in mind.

  1. Make it relevant. A boss testimonial has to mean something. It is about the message and the messenger. Ideally, the message should be one that can be delivered only by that specific messenger – a person who represents a big emotional investment in the business being advertised. He is in a strong position to sell benefits and strengthen the brand image. (Think of the classic Dave Thomas ads for Wendy’s.)
  2. Make it real. For this kind of ad to be effective, the photo and the copy must have the ring of authenticity. This is not the place for portrait photography. The boss should be depicted in a slice-of-life setting – like the construction CEO beside the truck. She should make eye contact with the camera (and hence, the readers). To give the right voice to the photo – and personalize the message – make the headline a quote.
  3. Keep it simple. For maximum visual impact, the photo composition should be uncluttered and the boss should be the most prominent element.

The language should be human, clear and non-corporate. It’s much better to say, “Our commitment to customer service starts at the top – with me,” than to say, “We’re committed to the relentless pursuit of best practices to better accomplish our actionable customer-facing objectives.”

Here’s a thought: What about the relentless pursuit of stronger boss-testimonial ads?

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NEFAC Awards Luncheon

Jane Mayer will receive the New England First Amendment Coalition‘s 2018 Stephen Hamblett First Amendment Award. 

Mayer, a writer for The New Yorker since 1995, covers politics, culture, and national security for the magazine. Mayer is perhaps best known for her accountability journalism and her ability to expose the underpinnings of powerful institutions. Her most recent book, “Dark Money,” is about the Koch brothers’ deep influence on conservative politics. Mayer previously worked at The Wall Street Journal, where she covered the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, the Persian Gulf War, and the fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1984, she became the paper’s first female White House correspondent. A Yale University alumna, Mayer first worked as a journalist for two small weekly newspapers in Vermont, The Weathersfield Weekly and The Black River Tribune, before moving to the daily Rutland Herald. She speaks frequently about the value of investigative journalism — at news organizations of all sizes — and the need for a watchdog press. In addition to “Dark Money,” Mayer also wrote the 2008 best-seller “The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals,” which is based on her New Yorker articles and was named one of the top 10 works of journalism of the decade by N.Y.U.’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. Her numerous honors include the John Chancellor Award; a Guggenheim Fellowship; the Goldsmith Book Prize; the Edward Weintal Prize; and a George Polk Award for magazine reporting in 2012.

The award is named after the late publisher of The Providence Journal and given each year to an individual who has promoted, defended or advocated for the First Amendment throughout his or her career.

NEFAC will honor Ms. Mayer at its annual luncheon from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. on Feb. 23 at the Boston Renaissance Waterfront Hotel. The coalition will also present its Freedom of Information Award and Antonia Orfield Citizenship Award during the event.

Friday, Feb 23
12:30 – 2 pm Luncheon

 

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Christopher Goffard

Christopher Goffard is an author and a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times. He is the writer and host of the podcast “Dirty John,” which has been downloaded more than 10 million times and spent a month atop the Apple podcast charts. He shared in the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for the paper’s Bell coverage and has twice been a Pulitzer finalist for feature writing, in 2007 and 2014. His novel “Snitch Jacket” was a finalist for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel. His book “You Will See Fire: A Search for Justice in Kenya,” based on his Times series, was published in 2011. His work appears regularly in the Best American Newspaper Narratives series.

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David D’Arcangelo

Diagnosed with a rare eye disease that left him legally blind at a young age, David D’Arcangelo has built successful careers in both the public and private sectors and now serves the Baker-Polito Administration as the Director of the Massachusetts Office on Disability.

David is passionate about promoting a better life for persons with disabilities and continues to bring about positive change for persons with disabilities across Massachusetts and the nation. Through his involvement with several ground-breaking policy initiatives, David is working to bring about the full and equal participation in all aspects of life for people with disabilities in a manner that fosters dignity and self-determination.

David possess a high-level of political acumen. Previously, David served three terms as a Malden City Councilor At Large and was one of the very few elected officials in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to openly serve as a person with a disability. David’s extensive experience in government and public policy includes serving in the Administrations of four Governors and the Massachusetts State Legislature. Further, David may be the first person to reach a statewide ballot in Massachusetts and to have disclosed a disability when he was the 2014 Republican Nominee for Secretary of State.

Respected across both the public and private sectors for his problem solving and leadership skills, David possesses the ability to empower employees and constituents to create collaborative, cooperative partnerships. David recently received the 2017 “Community Collaborator of the Year” award from Career Collaborative.
As Director of the Massachusetts Office on Disability, David has created several initiatives aimed at increasing access and opportunities for persons with disabilities throughout the Commonwealth. David established MOD’s annual Disability Summit that brings together leaders, decision-makers, and advocates to discuss issues such as accessibility and employment outcomes for persons with disabilities. David has greatly increased the transparency of the agency and has built several partnerships between MOD and the greater disability community.

Recently, under David’s leadership, MOD launched the Municipal ADA Improvement Grant Program. This innovative program provides funding and Technical Assistance for projects aimed at increasing access for persons with disabilities in municipal buildings throughout Massachusetts cities and towns. David was also a catalyst for having Massachusetts become the first state in the nation to emulate the federal 503 Utilization Goal, which endeavors to have state government contractors employ more people with disabilities.
David championed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) regarding obligations contained within the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by creating a policy to ensure that public monies spent are in compliance with the ADA. As a result accessibility of public housing will be improved for persons with disabilities. David was also instrumental in designing the “Work Matters” report, which creates a framework for States on workforce development for people with disabilities. David served as Co-Chair of the Transportation, Technology & Other Employment Supports Subcommittee for this ‘best practices guide’ that incorporates programs from all 50 States.

David also has extensive experience within non-profit leadership, which includes having served on the Board of Directors for the Arc of Middlesex East, Board of Directors for Resource Partnership, and the Board of Directors for Tailored for Success. He is a graduate of Suffolk University, where he has also served as an adjunct faculty member in the Communications and Journalism Department. David has also served in many other charitable and leadership positions, including Past President of the Malden Rotary Club, Board of Directors for the Arc of Middlesex East, Board of Directors for Tailored for Success, Board of Directors for Resource Partnership, and member and former Chair of the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind Rehabilitation Council. David has helped lead many public and civic endeavors such as his service as President of the Malden Rotary Club, Chair of the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind Rehabilitation Council, member of the Braille Literacy Advisory Council, and as an Election Officer for the City of Boston.

David is 47 and lives in Malden with his wife of 20 years Lisa and their daughter, who is on the Autism Spectrum. David also helps care for his older brother who is a person with a mental health disability. David is a 1996 graduate of Suffolk University, where he

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Al Getler

Al Getler has worked with nearly 100 New England publications and has served as publisher of five daily and four weekly newspapers. As publisher of The Eagle-Tribune (North Andover), his team reinvented their website and apps as early adapters bringing the mobile readership to above 50% as early as 2013. He launched the creation of a string of magazines in the North of Boston Media Group and, most recently, a ski magazine in Vermont. His team developed a LiveStream show at the Burlington Free Press titled ‘The Table’ covering topics such as human trafficking, the opioid crisis, and homelessness with guests including governors, members of congress and community leaders. His Burlington team was video centric having won 5 Edward R. Murrow Awards from The Radio Television Digital News Association. Getler believes that newspapers need to push the digital envelope, especially video, while remaining true to the mission and tradition of newspaper journalism.[/vc_column_text]

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Jane Elizabeth

Jane is the director of accountability journalism at the American Press Institute. She joined API in 2014, arriving from the Washington Post where she was deputy Metro editor/digital. She also has been an editor and reporter at four other metropolitan newspapers including the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Virginian-Pilot; and has taught journalism at Old Dominion University, the University of Pittsburgh and Point Park University.
She holds a master’s degree in mass communications from Virginia Commonwealth University, and was a 2017 Knight Visiting Nieman Fellow at Harvard. With the Poynter Institute, she publishes a weekly newsletter on accountability journalism.
In her spare time, she writes “News from a Friend,” a daily newsletter for non-journalists that’s designed to showcase and explain the day’s top stories from the most reliable news sources.
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Wendy Lu

I am a national reporter based in New York City. I’ve written for The New York Times, Teen Vogue, Bustle, Columbia Journalism Review, Newsday, and many others. I write about a wide range of health disparities and social issues within disability communities, including topics like family, education, relationships, gender dynamics, and policy. I’m also a speaker on living with a disability, inclusive feminism and best practices for reporters covering disability issues.

I was trained as a journalist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Columbia University. At Columbia, I focused on investigative health care reporting, multi-platform design and photojournalism. After graduation, I published my master’s project on navigating the dating world for women with disabilities in The New York Times, where I’ve continued to write about living with a disability.

As a journalist, I also cover gender, race, politics, relationships, and New York City culture. I’ve written for amNewYork (published by Newsday), covering breaking news, crime, political rallies, local food trends and pop culture. I also have experience interviewing politicians, celebrities on the red carpet and big names like George Takei, Grandmaster Flash and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Most recently, I was selected for a lifestyle fellowship with Bustle.com, where I covered sex and relationships, the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump’s administration and identity politics.

I’m available to speak for podcasts, school lectures, panels, and other events. In 2016, I was a panelist on the “Literary Citizenship: The Writer’s Identity” panel at AmpLit Fest in New York.  I’ve also appeared as a guest on Enlightened-ish, She & Her, a southern feminist podcast (episode coming soon), and Bustle’s “I Want It That Way” podcast on sex and dating. Interested? Book me for your next event.

I grew up in Boston and eastern North Carolina, and would spend my summer breaks in Shanghai, China where my family is from. Besides English, I speak Mandarin and Shanghainese. Since birth, I’ve worn a tracheostomy (trach) tube that helps me breathe. My disability doesn’t affect my ability to be a journalist or function like any other human being. One of the most important things I’ve learned is that you can do anything you set your mind to. What else? My favorite TV couple is Lily and Marshall, but only after Clark and Lois. My notebook includes bits and pieces of poetry, random dialogue from overheard conversations and the occasional light bulb idea.

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Dr. Patrick L. Plaisance

Patrick Lee Plaisance joined Colorado State University in 2002. He worked as a journalist at numerous American newspapers for nearly 15 years in Virginia, New Jersey, California and Florida, and received his Ph.D. from Syracuse University. His research focuses on media ethics theory, moral psychology, journalism values and media sociology. He is author of Media Ethics: Key Principles for Responsible Practice (SAGE, 2009; 2nd ed. 2014) and Virtue in Media: The Moral Psychology of Excellence in News & Public Relations (Routledge, 2014). He is editing the forthcoming volume, Handbook of Communication Ethics (DeGruyter, 2017). He was named Editor of the Journal of Media Ethics for the 2014-2019 term. He also has published several book chapters and more than a dozen articles in peer-reviewed journals, including Journal of Communication, Communication Theory, Communication Research, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly and Journalism Studies. He teaches media ethics, reporting and communication theory. He writes a blog for Psychology Today magazine on issues of media ethics and moral psychology.

Select Publications:

Plaisance, P.L. (2016). Media Ethics Theorizing, Re-oriented: A Shift in Focus for Individual-Level Analyses. Journal of Communication 66 (3), 454-474.

Plaisance, P.L. (2014). Virtue in Media: The Moral Psychology of Excellence in News & Public Relations. New York: Routledge.

Plaisance, P.L. (2014). Media Ethics: Key Principles for Responsible Practice (2nd Ed.). Los Angeles: SAGE Publications.

Plaisance, P.L.(2104). Virtue in media: The moral psychology of U.S. exemplars in news and public relations.Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 91 (2), 308-325.

Plaisance, P.L., Skewes, A.E., & Hanitzsch, T. (2012). Ethical orientations of journalists around the globe: Implications from a cross-national survey. Communication Research 39(5), 641-661.

Plaisance, P.L., & Deppa, J.A. (2009). Perceptions and manifestations of autonomy, transparency and harm among U.S. newspaper journalists. Journalism & Communication Monographs 10 (4), pp. 327-386.

Plaisance, P.L. (2007). Transparency: An assessment of the Kantian roots of a key element in media ethics practice. Journal of Mass Media Ethics 22 (2-3): 187-207.

Plaisance, P.L. (2005). The mass media as discursive network: Building on the implications of libertarian and communitarian claims for news media ethics theory. Communication Theory 15 (4): 292-313.

Plaisance, P.L. (2005). The Propaganda War on Terrorism: An Analysis of the United States Shared Values Public-Diplomacy Campaign after Sept. 11, 2001, Journal of Mass Media Ethics 20 (4): 250-268.

Plaisance, P.L. (2005). A gang of pecksniffs grows up: The evolution of journalism ethics discourse in The Journalist and Editor and Publisher, Journalism Studies 6 (4): 479-491.

Plaisance, P.L., & E.A. Skewes. (2003). Personal and professional dimensions of news work: Exploring the link between journalists values and roles. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 80 (4): 833-848.

Plaisance, P.L. (2000). The concept of media accountability reconsidered. Journal of Mass Media Ethics 15 (4), 257-268.

Education

Ph.D., Mass Communications, Syracuse University

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