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Wednesday, June 27, 2012 By Erika Mincey
Advertising
You can’t judge a newspaper by its cover
Captivating readers with visually appealing layout designs
By Erika Mincey - Staff Writer
It’s
not what’s on the cover of a newspaper that entices readers to continue
reading. Using a combination of text, photos and graphic elements to
tell a story for both magazine and newspaper layout has become the
driving force behind getting readers to read a publication from one page
to the next.
In
fact, Austin LBJ High School journalism teacher Janet Elbom said she
and her newspaper staff use this technique to tell convincing stories,
which has won top state and national awards for the school’s newspaper, The Liberator, including the Gold Stars from ILPC, Pacemakers from NSPA and Gold and Silver Crowns from CSPA.
“Centerpieces,
are also known as a ‘double truck,’ give readers key information about
what the story is about, without having to read the entire body of
text,” Elbom said. “It’s fun to read things with pictures.”
Publication centerpieces often originate from story beats, she said.
“The
two ways to generate centerpiece ideas are to first choose an evergreen
topic or a news peg that focuses on a local in-depth story,” said
Natasha Smith, one of Elbom’s former journalism students. “Adding a
fresh angle and creativity to both the writing and the design, helps to
compliment the theme of the story.”
Depending
on the story’s topic, determines how much writing is required to piece
together a spread. Journalist should write enough text to cover the meat
of the story.
Dawn
Begor of Pittisburgh, one of 28 journalism teachers attending the
American Society of News Editors (ASNE) Summer Institute at the
University of Texas, said “writing for spreads requires in-depth
interviewing and researching for complex topics, unlike basic story
beats.”
Katie Byrd of Oklahoma City said the full spread allows her students to capture more information.
“With
an expanded spread layout, my students have additional space to define
the theme of the story, so readers can read it and experience it
mentally,” Byrd said. “In addition, students have extended time to
develop their stories by researching the topic and interviewing good
sources.”
Elbom
advised teachers to narrow the research gathered and include additional
information in graphs, secondary stories and sidebars.
“Prior
to this training, I wasn’t aware of the different graphics students can
use to break up long bodies of text,” said journalism teacher Chelsea
Gist of New Orleans.“ I plan to incorporate Elbom’s advanced layout and
design techniques into my high school journalism curriculum.”
Gist
said she will change to a very modern and sleek look with more
eye-catching centerpieces to include creative fonts, excellent use of
filling white space, a variety of colors, and photographs.
HELPFUL HINTS
“Content should always drive design,” Elbom said, offering three useful tips.
- Let the tone of the spread guide your design.
- The content should determine the color scheme of the spread.
- Check out publications with the best layout designs to help formulate good ideas for creating centerpieces.
IN-DEPTH WRITING TIPS
In order for writers to bring their words to life, essential writing guidelines need to be incorporated Elbom says.
- Find good sources.
- Before interviewing them, remember to do your homework by developing open-ended questions.
- Sort through the information gathered and use the most pertinent material when writing the story.
- Be sure to edit and rewrite to assure a fully developed, error free story.
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