NYT Hall of Fame sports front

(No, I don't feel like wading through the HoF fan to discuss it, and I didn't see a thread about it.)

I respect The Times but I feel, journalistically, this was lazy. People buy that paper to find stuff they won't get elsewhere, and any paper could have run a nearly blank page to make the point.

Yes, it makes a statement, but the proper one? Not feeling that way, although it appears I'm in the minority.

 

I liked it a lot. Design is about attracting readers with your presentation. And this provides a little buzz for a print product.

 

I probably would have only left it blank down to the fold, but I have no problem with the concept. It does indeed make a statement.

 

From the no new ideas department: In 1974, the student paper at the University of Texas -- The Daily Texan -- ran a blank front page, except for a textbox with a UT regent’s quote: “We do not fund anything that we don’t control.”

 

Of course it isn't new. After Georgia Tech beat Georgia in football one year, AJC columnist and noted Bulldogs fan Lewis Grizzard's column consisted of the sentence, "Frankly, I don't want to talk about it," followed by a column of white space.

So no, not new, but it's appropriate here and, as I said, it makes the statement the editors wanted to make. I don't like wasting the entire page for it, but I'm on board with the idea.

 

Some editors I've worked for nearly hit the roof when I suggested such a concept.

 

Looks like I'll have to run to a Starbucks and pick this one up. I really like it as well.

 

Would have been more impactful in conjunction with an important story.

 

I remember in the early to mid 1990s when the sports columnist in Peoria, Ill., died unexpectedly, they had a story on 1A about his death, then on the sports cover, they had his sig where it normally ran on the top left of the page, then left the rest of the column blank.

Thought that was a pretty cool tribute.

 

I think this is the best point against the page. Media coverage of the Baseball Hall of Fame is way, way over the top because we see it as our Hall of Fame, which is my principle complaint with writers voting.

Josh Crutchmer, formerly of SportsDesigner.com wrote up a strong take on the page here: http://www.snd.org/2013/01/drawing-a-blank-two-sides-of-the-nyt-white-space-coin/

I think his points are reasonable. When I still was designing, I tended to go for bold approaches because I value catching readers' eyes. But it's important to leave room for bigger stories, and there's no way this story justified this space. It might have been effective to run a regular column next to the whit space centerpiece, which also would have told readers this wasn't a production error. On the other hand the page wouldn't have been as striking and buzz-worthy.

 

Congrats to the NYT for finally being allowed to do a NY Post parody.

I don't like it, either. All that space wasted for something that already had been dramatized for hours.