How did you play the Boston Marathon explosions?

I'm more offended by the design of a couple of those papers than I am the news judgment.

And I didn't like the Tribune's treatment. I think it would have worked much better had they replaced the ridiculous logos with a photo or two. Packaging that inside the black box with the copy block they used would have been more powerful, in my opinion. Also, ragged 1-column headlines are the worst thing ever to happen to newspapers.

 

You know.... the more I think about it, I really DON'T like it.

I DO like the ability and drive to localize the story, but the headline "Our Runners Safe in Boston..." almost begs for the sentence to be completed with "..... too bad about all you other suckers out there."

I think my perfect scenario would be huge 6-column horizontal photo with hammer head. Underneath would be the AP (or NYT or whomever you like to use) main bar, second photo (vertical, to serve as a divider) and local reaction piece on A1. Photo and hammer head wouldbe so large that they would take everything above the fold save for teasers.

Then I would refer to sports cover and inside news page with jumps and sidebar. And definitely do a photo page, in color if at all possible.

 

I don't understand the message. Wouldn't "Boston Bulls, Boston Blackhawks, Boston Bears, Boston White Sox, Boston Cubs" have made more sense? The city, not the sports teams, should be the focus, right?

Newseum can be quite the treasure trove of awful newspaper design.

 

A friend of mine posted this. Funny thing is, she works at the Post.
http://www.theonion.com/articles/this-is-a-tragedydoes-it-really-matter-exactly-how,32076/

 

Also, on that Tribune front, one of those things is not like the other.

 

I don't know the size of the paper you're talking about or where it is, but I'd bet the woman is either a friend of one of the editors, or called up one of the editors to pitch a story about her having been right there running the Boston Marathon a few years back, and someone decided that was just the bestest localization idea ever. But it's dumb as shit.

I'm all for localizing this story - like talking to a local person who ran in the race on Monday, what they saw, etc . But if the only local angle you can come up with is talking with a person who ran in the race in 2007, then you're better off skipping the local angle and running more wire on the actual news, in my view.

 

In my shop, that could lead to a suspension or at least stern talking-to. But I think this is the wrong thread.

 

I don't get the message, either. And if the Tribune wants to stand up in a symbolic gesture for Boston, why do it on the front of the sports section? Because a crowd of people was targeted at a marathon? OK, but that's a participant sport. So why drag pro sports into it?

A full-page house ad in the A-section might have been a better idea.

 

Down here in Mississipp', the story led 1A with a localized sidebar, page inside A section and an edited-down story about the actual race in sports.

 

We were pretty much the same, except the sports story was the one from the AP about security being beefed up at stadiums and reaction from venues around the country. I spliced in a few paragraphs at the end about the race itself.
We had two runners there, one of whom was near the finish line when the bombs went off. That story was written by the sports staff but went on A1.

 

Our Tuesday A1 centerpiece was the Boston Globe street scene shot of the second bomb going off in the background, and chaos in the foreground. Ran with the latest AP bombing story we could get.

Sidebar on the four locals who ran in the marathon ran below it.

For Wednesday's bottom-of-A1 story, we talked to organizers and local police about several upcoming road races in our area (one of which, the Bloomsday in Spokane, attracts nearly 50K runners) and how the Boston incident would affect security preparations.

To be honest, not the best angle because these officials still don't know exactly what happened in Boston. A whole lot of "we're doing everything we can to keep runners and spectators safe" quotes without many details.

 

Agree completely.