- Newspaper Death Watch
Advertising Age has launched the first in a series of articles on the future (or non-future) of newspapers from the perspective of advertisers, along with a poll asking readers to guess the lifespan of newsprint.
- South African paper rethinks page numbers
“To commemorate World AIDS day on December 1st the South African newspaper Cape Argus used their page numbers on the top of every page of the newspaper to educate the public on statistics relating to the AIDS pandemic in South Africa. All the statistics were collected from UNICEF and the South African Department of Health.” (via osocio.org and bestadsontv)
Two new visual journalism scholarships
Announcing the Foundation Scholarship and the Edmund C. Arnold Scholarship
The SND Foundation is pleased to announce The SND Foundation Scholarship and The Society for News Design Edmund C. Arnold Scholarship — two brand new opportunities for aspiring visual journalists. Application deadline for the SNDF Scholarship is June 13!
5 things learned at SSND
The design students at the University of Missouri had front-row seats to the SND college design contest when it was judged on campus yesterday. In between shuffling pages and posting the winners, we listened to the judges had to say about the best of college design. And these are the lessons we learned…
Society welcomes Chinese news designers
The Society for News Design, in partnership with the China Society for News Design, has formed SND Chinese, a new affiliate for visual journalists at Chinese-language news organizations
Archives
Dutch graphics summit draws a large audience — The first Dutch infographics summit, organized by Frederik Ruys, was a tremendous inaugural effort, drawing more than 200 graphics specialists from major newspapers, magazines, television networks and online publications. The event was the held in Amsterdam.
Check out the official conference site for pictures and stories.
The New York Times wins top prize at Malofiej 16 — Graphics made exclusively for the internet have been chosen as the best of the contest, winning the “Best of Show” in the 16th Malofiej International Infographics Awards. The New York Times took the top honors for its breaking news coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings, with graphics that unfolded in real time that day.
Big fish in a small pond: Vince Chiaramonte — From one sports designer to another, Jon Wile asks Vince Chiaramonte to weigh in on his background, the pages he saw in Syracuse and advice for designers. The Buffalo designer has had an extraordinary run of amazing work in the last few years, including a Judge’s Special Recognition this year at The Best of Newspaper Design.
Matt Mansfield leaving Merc leadership post — The Society’s Vice President, Matt Mansfield, is leaving his longtime leadership role at the San Jose Mercury News, where he is a deputy managing editor and business development director. Read an interview about his time at the Merc, the future of journalism, the challenges for the Society, and what’s next for Matt Mansfield.
SND board will meet in Las Vegas this weekend — The Society’s board will gather for its spring meeting this weekend in Las Vegas, the site of this year’s annual workshop. On the agenda are several important issues, including an expansion into China, a possible move of the SND headquarters, a first look at the program for SND Vegas, an assessment of how the sweeping overhaul of Quick Courses has been going so far, and an update from the SND Foundation on its scholarship efforts. SND President Gayle Grin and I will report back next week with all the details and, as always, will be looking for your feedback on what we can do to make an SND membership more valuable. Full report forthcoming.
Garcia launches Xpress, first free paper in Thailand — The first free newspaper in Thailand debuts with a sleek look, abundant color, and a hip vibe aimed at attracting a young reading audience. The mastermind behind the bold look? None other than Mario Garcia, who shares a few cover pages from the launch. The 100,000 circulation paper, which debuted on Wednesday, is the latest in a flurry of free papers popping up around Asia. The market appears to be thriving.
SND in Buenos Aires: A sneak peek at Argentina — Detroit’s Mauricio Gutierrez gives us a scouting report from a recent trip to Buenos Aires, SND’s 2009 annual workshop site: “If you’re thinking that SND Buenos Aires could be a good conference to attend in 2009, put in your vacation request ASAP! Buenos Aires is piping hot. Has anyone counted how many stories on the city have run in The New York Times lately? A lot. And for a good reason. I went there a few weeks ago and can give you a sneak peek at what you may see while you’re there enjoying the Workshop.”
In beautiful balance: Visuals and information — Megan Jaegerman produced some of the best news graphics ever while working at The New York Times from 1990 to 1998. Her work is smart, finely detailed, elegant, witty, inventive, informative. A fierce researcher and reporter, she writes gracefully and precisely. Megan has the soul of a news reporter, who happens to use graphs, tables, and illustrations — as well as words — to explain the news. Her best work is the best work in news graphics.
Keeping an eye out for cool infographics — Design Journal caught up with Randy Krum, who publishes the blog Cool Infographics. Randy has found some really great infographics, and only a small part of them are from the media.
The interactivity gap: Embrace the Web — As news organizations strive to produce ever more multimedia while expending increasingly less effort, the immersive interactive graphic has become somewhat of an endangered species.
Miscellany
Front pages
These papers received the most awards in the 29th annual Best of Newspaper Design competition, view their front pages today via the Newseum.
- Los Angeles Times
- The New York Times
- National Post
- The Boston Globe
- St. Petersburg Times
- Zaman
- Chicago Tribune
- Hartford Courant
- The Plain Dealer
- The Virginian-Pilot
- El Mundo
- San Jose Mercury News
- Dallas Morning News
- Politiken
- San Francisco Chronicle
- Toronto Star
- Buffalo News
- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
- The Rocky Mountain News
- Clarín
- The Guardian
- Prensa Grafica
- South Florida Sun-Sentinel
- The Washington Post
- The Denver Post
- Público
- The Seattle Times
- Centro
Society News
- SND Vegas: The Intern!
Yes, students, we will have a version of The Intern at SNDVegas! After a couple of wonderfully elaborate contests in Orlando and Boston, we’re taking a low-key approach in Vegas. Check out the full details at the SNDVegas site.
- 3D Quick Course: A chat with a guru or two
SND’s 3D graphics QuickCourse was in San Francisco this weekend for a two-day workshop focused on Newtek’s LightWave. SND Update caught up with the course’s two speakers, South Florida Sun-Sentinel’s Len DeGroot and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Steve Wilson, along Ocean Beach outside San Francisco’s Beach Chalet.
Industry News
- A look at El Mundo’s new office
EL MUNDO newspaper and elmundo.es are now working together in the new integrated building on Avda. de San Luis, Madrid, Spain. Their first big test was the Spanish National Election Coverage — and the building did not collapse.
- Infographic blogs from newspapers
The Sun-Sentinel and the Plain Dealer have launched information graphics blogs on their respective sites. Given the level of fine work by their graphics staffs, they are well worth bookmarking.
“The idea is to share information with readers that would normally be unused research,” Sun-Sentinel graphics editor Len DeGroot posted on the NAO boards. “We want to give them stuff they can use in their daily lives — with a visual approach. Some days, the images may be static, on others we will use interactive to explain, entertain, etc. But we want it to glide effortlessly between serious, fun and possibly even goofy.”
Events
- 3-D InfoGraphics Quick Course
- Apr 12, San Francisco State University
- Adobe Survival Courses 1+2
- May 16, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana
- Small Papers Summit
- May 31, Republican-American, Waterbury, CT