My Inside Page

I’ll say right off the bat that designing this page was a difficult experience for me. I radically altered the layout of my page several times, which forced me to work down to the wire to finish and thus not get everything exactly right.

Obviously, there are several things I would have done differently given the opportunity. First, I would have devoted more time to planning my inside page layout. Not coming in with a definite idea of what I wanted to do caused me both confusion and frustration when I couldn’t squeeze everything together.

Second, I would have not worried so much about pictures in the process of designing the page. I am a longtime reader of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, so I attempted to make my inside pages similar to what I find in the AJC. There is one big difference, however; in most newspapers, advertisements abound within the inside (the previous link goes to an AJC editorial page, where advertising isn't as prevalent). I feel that my page would be a lot more realistic and better laid out if I could work around ads rather than pictures. I feel like I tried to make my page more like a front page, which contributed to my dissatisfaction with it. Given my vision of what an inside page should look like, if I could do it again I would not have included the picture on the bottom, as I don’t feel like it adds much to the page or the story.

Lastly, I really am not a fan of my headlines. Although this is outside the realm of design, headline writing is another important function of the editor, and I feel that, again, given more time I could have produced better headlines than I had. I guess it all goes back to having a better plan to begin with, but I believe I would have made a more adequate product with superior planning.

Complaints aside, there are several things that I really like in my inside page. First, although it is a copyrighted AP photo, I really like the picture of the President and First Lady waving to Beyonce Knowles after their “first dance” at the inauguration. I feel that it compliments the story well and gives a good sense of the jubilance and optimism surrounding a new administration. It’s placement near the top of the page I feel is definitely warranted, as it gives the “dominant element” and overall oomph that readers are drawn to.

Also, although this is a more personal preference, I definitely placed an emphasis on text over photos on my page, and I’m glad the final outcome reflected this. I concede that this is a more traditional view of newspapers (as seen in an older New York Times), but given the competition between television and newspapers, I think that papers should stick to their strength of in-depth reporting rather than rely on the old adage “a picture is worth 1,000 words.” That’s not to say I don’t want pictures in a newspaper (again, I really like the inauguration picture, not to mention other striking newspaper photography), but I like words better, and I think I did a good job showing this on my page.

Although this process was in general a challenge, I feel like it gave me a good idea of the design element of newspapers. I don’t know how those guys do it everyday, but more credit to them!