Poynter reporting:
Where are all of the truly great Sunday, front page designs in the U.S. these days?
As I do my daily run through the Newseum’s collection of front pages, Sunday looks a lot like Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.
“Papers seem to be taking fewer chances,” said Suzette Moyer, creative director of the St. Petersburg Times’ Bay Magazine.
“Instead of blowing out that one big story that they know is good,
papers are trying to appease every reader by cramming it all on the
front page.”
You have a little more time to read on a Sunday, right? And more time to analyze what you’ve read. It should be special.
Granted, there might be a beautifully executed front page on any
given Sunday in any given town with the ability to stop a reader in her
tracks. Some papers excel at this (see examples below). But, by and
large, I think the volume has been turned down to a rather monotonous
murmur around the U.S.
“I don’t think there is enough surprise to most Sunday papers,” said Moyer.
And no big surprise as to why.
Supposition 1: There are tough cuts in every part of
the newsroom. It’s unfortunate and inevitable. But perhaps we’ve
reached a tipping point in quality by eliminating too many positions for
visual journalists?
Design and graphics staffs are about half the size they were 10 years ago, says Jeff Goertzen, graphics director of the Denver Post (and soon to be director of graphics at USA Today), who conducted an informal survey of about 50 newsrooms earlier this year.
“The average design staff that was about 22-24 people 10 years ago in
a big newsroom is now around 12 or 13 people,” said Goertzen. Where
there were once nine artists, those staffs now have three or four. Eight
of the major papers surveyed have no graphic artists at all. Copy desks
and photo staffs have taken tremendous hits, too.
http://www.poynter.org/how-tos/newsgathering-storytelling/visual-voice/149076/4-reasons-the-sunday-front-page-now-looks-a-lot-like-the-monday-front-page/
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