Fall preview tabs...anyone else still doing them?

The Miami Herald and Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel football sections both appeared over the past several days, and I was impressed by both. The Sun Sentinel's was particularly strong -- 64 pages, with separate section fronts for the Dolphins, U of Miami, U of Florida, FSU, Florida Atlantic/other state colleges and high schools. That paper has cut back so much in recent years that I wasn't expecting much -- and the section wasn't as robust as it was 15 or 20 years ago when it annually made the APSE's top 10 for big papers -- but it was still a damn good effort. So was the Herald's, even though it was about half the size of the Sentinel's -- some good reading there.

 

We're starting a true Football Preview section for the first time this year...in the past it's been a hodgepodge of team photos and rosters that looked like some high school publication put it together. And we would run the team capsules, features and such in the regular sports section. This year we've gotten the go-ahead to pursue a real section with the hopes being to put something together that they can sell better when next season comes around.

 

Your art just cost some kid his preseason scholarship.

 

Ours came out last Sunday. Same basic format. Same lack of ads

 

They sold ads on the cover of my tab this year. That was a first. Color front and back but they didn't sell any color ads. Meh.

 

Designed this year's high school football tab with digital in mind first. Printed tab was 24 pages and came out three days after the online version. Check it out:
The Herald’s 2016 high school football preview