"I was proud of the work we did,'' she writes. "When the tornado ripped through town, we poured our hearts into the coverage we did, and we saw and were affected by who we were covering. . . . Sometimes you really have to live in a place to really be able to produce the news in a compassionate, thoughtful and understanding way. A page designer isn't someone who just slaps stuff on a page; they work closely with news editors and photographers, and they know the community and how what they do affects others and they design accordingly."Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.
[Image: today's Sun, Newseum]
As a fellow artist, I completely agree with this inidividual's comments. However, from my experience working with Gannett editors, design is simply just not important. Most of the editors I have dealt with felt that better design was just wasting more money; they didn't feel that people in the community received any satisfaction or appreciation from seeing well designed pieces. This is simply nonsense. Can't begin to tell you how many people always had conversations with me about design. Gannett just doesn't want to spend the money on the design. Those interested in good design, might as well just find someplace that wants good design. The fight isn't worth it.
ReplyDeleteIt's true. Gannett on a whole has never been a company that's emphasized or celebrated design. Their habit throughout the past 10 years has been to use templates that can be filled in and mindlessly changed to "fit" a different community. As a designer and an artist, this has been highly frustrating for me in the past.
ReplyDeleteBut editors at The Jackson Sun have always appreciated good design and talent. I wouldn't have stayed there if they hadn't. And maybe I'm only speaking for myself here, but I've found myself being encouraged, challenged and appreciated at The Sun throughout the years. People have come, and people have gone. But the place is like a family. So many opportunities have come my way while working there, and I'm forever grateful.
In 2003, Margo Morgan and I had the arduous task of covering the damage inflicted by a tornado that demolished the entire downtown area. And, Morgan is right: How is a designer supposed to connect visually with a reader when he or she is not a part of their community? How are we to understand the impact fully? I'm not sure if that problem has a satisfactory solution. Unfortunately, the trend in the industry is to move the focus away from the print edition. But this is the situation we're in.
No one likes change, but the times ... they are a changin'.
((And I just want to make an interactive newspaper that looks like the The Jackson Sun print edition for the iPad. I'm such a nerd!!))
Of course it's a designer's job to slap stuff on a page, just as it's a reporter's job to churn out mindless copy to fill the space between ads and it's an editor's job to ram those stories through the system as quickly as possible. That's what journalism has been reduced to at Gannett. No time for thinking - slap, slap, quick read and send, and your page is out the door. Next!
ReplyDeleteIt's fucking embarassing. But at least some of us still have jobs.