I was looking through newseum.org's front pages for today, Dec. 13, and I came across the front page for the Scottsdale Tribune. http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/hr.asp?fpVname=AZ_ST&ref_pge=gal&b_pge=1 After designing our own front pages, I noticed this one was quite different from anything we learned about. What appears to be the centerpiece of the page, is just a picture with a headline and a caption, and it takes up about half the page. The only story that begins on the front page is a story in the bottom right hand corner with 4 paragraphs. The rest of the front page is left directing the reader to various stories throughout the paper.
As a reader, do you think this layout invites you to inquire about the rest of the stories in the newspaper? Does your opinion change if you are looking at the front page from the opinion of a copy editor?
Personally, the centerpiece interests me considering all the commotion over "going green," but that would be the only story that I would invest my time into. The teasers listed below are not the least bit fascinating. Maybe nothing really goes on in Scottsdale, but for a Thursday this is a pretty sad front page.
As a copy editor, I would want to put more stories on the front page that at least offer a lead and nutgraph, hoping to get people further interested. This page doesn't leave much to be desired and if you don't get people wanting to read your newspaper, then you haven't done your job.
2 comments:
Jessica M. (and the rest of the class): If you're going to refer us to a page on the Newseum Web site, which is a great thing to do, go ahead and post a JPEG of the page on the blog. As you've probably noticed, the Newseum site is updated daily, so images of pages can't be seen after 24 hours unless you supply them.
Jessica raises a good point about whether there's anything going on in Scottsdale, Ariz., where the newspaper she wrote about is published. Having lived near that wealthy suburb of Phoenix when I taught at Arizona State University, I can say that there may not have been. The newspaper Jessica looked at is the Scottsdale edition of the East Valley Tribune, a newspaper about a little larger than the Home News Tribune, which competes directly with the Arizona Republic, a newspaper about the size of the Star Ledger. The newspapers are battling for readers and advertisers in Scottsdale. So both of them are publishing separate editions for that city with front pages that are very heavy on local news. That means they might not be at all interesting to us but could be fascinating to residents of Scottsdale.
Post a Comment