Happy 200th, Concord Monitor

Part of the New Hampshire paper's 200th celebration is giving readers a look at life in 1809, via paperdolls. SND member Charlotte Thibault, who designed the dolls and created a Flash page for the Web describes the project:
In the paper we have them to clip out and on the web we've
developed a flash application to dress them with backdrops and period
music. On the story page, there are links to the flash ap and also to
downloadable pdfs so they can be printed on your choice of paper
(newsprint isn't the best material for paperdolls!)
See it here. Enjoy the music.

Help getting to Buenos Aires

If you plan to attend the 31st Annual Workshop in Buenos Aires, register by June 15 and your registration could be free! The Orlando Sentinel has donated one free professional registration, a $395 value. We'll hold a drawing from all the names of professionals signed up by June 15 and give the freebie to the winner. So don't delay! Go to
http://www.snd.org/events/events.lasso?ID=314

Copy editing seminar ... cheap

The New England Newspaper Association will hold a seminar on copy editing in the online age on May 14 at The Telegraph in Hudson, N.H. And it's just 39 bucks. There's a limit of 30 people.
Find a registration form here and more details here.

Some comforting news ...

I just spoke to the kindergarten classes at my daughter's school and I asked them if they get newspapers delivered to their homes each morning. Out of about 44 kids there, at least 35 or more raised their hands. Honestly, I was prepared for just a sprinkling of hands. I told them to all go home and thank their parents.

New look in Atlanta

Big changes in Atlanta today ... and I don't mean another truckload of Yankees moving into town.

Who's going to Buenos Aires?

Is anyone planning on attending SND's 31st workshop, this year held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sept. 21-24? If you are, how and why? If not, why not?
** Addition: After hearing the presentation from the organizers here in Orlando this morning, I'd recommend you go if possible.

From the home office in North Kingstown, R.I., ...
SND's regional Quick Courses continue to win rave reviews but these days not everyone has a travel budget. So SND has created partnerships that give our members discounts on design-related Webinars. Learn new skills at your own computer!
First, SND member Sara Quinn of The Poynter Institute will offer "Moving From Print to Web Design: 5 Things You Need to Know," a Poynter/NewsU Webinar, 2-3 p.m. EST April 22, 2009.
SND members get $10 discount on $24.95 fee by using the code
PSNDWEB09 (that's a zero 9) when you register.

Also, for the next month, newspaper technology guru Kevin Slimp is offering a variety of webinars. Sign up using the code PRASSOC and get 15% discount on $79 fee.

Two SND regional groups are gearing up for spring events.
SND Scandinavia takes its annual meeting to the online-games capital Oulu, Finland, for Oulu24, where networking days last 24 hours! Sessions are in English.

Region 17, Russia, holds its annual Russian-language design competition May 16-17, and judges include SND Past President Gayle Grin and members Marco Grieco and Svetlana Maximchenko.

Spaces remain in all five upcoming spring Quick Courses, in Bellingham; Orlando; Toronto; Vermillion,S.D.; and St. Petersburg, Fla. Review the list at www.snd.org and take control of your career!

This ain't the Beaver

Here is today's 1A from the Patriot Ledger in Quincy, Mass. Only one story, lots of teases. Hard not to check out the lead package, huh?

Designer of the Week

This week it's Vada Crosby, a graphics designer for The Hartford Courant, where he has also worked as a reporter, copy editor, layout editor and assistant op-ed page editor. He's an SND-award winner and was the Courant's 2008 Graphics Artist of the Year. Vada is a frequent speaker at seminars and workshops around the country, addressing issues of editing, page design and newsroom diversity.
But that's not all. He's also a justice of the peace and an adjunct professor of writing with a bachelor’s degree in communications from Fordham and a master’s in religious studies from Hartford Seminary.
Truly stunning work. I'm jealous.

UConn wins!!

OK, last night I predicted they'd win by 40. I feel stupid after a measly 22-point championship victory. Here are some Connecticut pages. I only posted a handful of fronts (see them all at the Newseum) but I'd like to get some sports covers. Send 'em to sgriffin@rep-am.com.

Bridgeport pages added, 1:50 p.m. Journal Inquirer sports added, 2:18 p.m.

Charles Apple has a collection from the men's game here.

Comedy News Network?

New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller threw out this gem Thursday about CNN:
It's hard to remember that the letters stand for Cable News Network when reporting is replaced by "juries of commentators" behind laptops on a set that looks like "a parody of a 'Daily Show' parody" of a news set.

Designer of the Week

Our next designer of the week is Katrina T. Lallier. She's been working at Metro US since August 2003 and is currently Editorial Art Director in Boston. Two of the last six years she lived in NYC and led the U.S. design team (for Boston, Philadelphia and New York papers). Katrina focuses on features pages for all three cities, news, special coverage, as well as pages for international use (Metro has papers in 16 countries.) She writes dance reviews, too. Before working at Metro, she interned at the Albany Times-Union. Katrina graduated from Union College with a BA in political science and earned a certificate in book and magazine publishing from Emerson College in 2005. She's a Quark junkie and self-taught newspaper designer. See more clips at http://www.ktlallier.com/.

Sad news

I'm truly sorry to pass along this news. Jim Kuykendall, the Hartford Courant graphics artist who I wrote about a couple of weeks ago, passed away Saturday morning. There is a memorial service Tuesday at 4 p.m. at the Church of Christ in Newington. Read more here.

Bad news for former Maine guy

Paul Wallen, who was managing editor for visuals in Lewiston, Maine, when the Sun Journal wone 22 SND awards, has been let go at the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale because of a job elimination. Saw him speak at a workshop in Hartford several years ago while he was in Lewiston. Smart guy. Tough news. Read more here.

Designer of the week

This week we've got a self-described nuts-and-bolts designer: Charlotte Thibault of the Concord (NH) Monitor. She's an illustrator and graphic artist. Here's Charlotte's autobio:
I got my first mac in 1987 and have been stumbling through life ever since, always something new to learn, not always learning it right the first time. Still falling on my face about as many times as I do it right. I live on the river, same one as the graphic, about 3-4 miles upstream, surrounded by a farm where I just bought a half gallon of maple syrup for $22. Can't beat that.
Here's her work:



She also does some Flash work.
Click here to see her page descriptions >>>.
The gooseberries and currants are for a B-1 rail item (the state is allowing us to have some disease-resistant types now.)

Lehtinen, a recreational bridge the snowmobilers bought and constructed on old railroad bridge and gave it to the city. It connects a park to a state forest over the
Contoocook River.

OilPrice: Another rail item, the end of a series with current oil prices that ran throughout the winter.

Mountain path: illustration for a viewpoints Sunday piece about a local pastor who befriended a homeless woman, kind of about the path she's on. Pothole: rail again, soliciting readers for the worst pothole.

PSA: chart on the prostate screening studies.

Love those nuts and bolts

** As of 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, I've got one sports agate page**
I got an e-mail this morning from someone who sort of dismissed herself as a nuts-and-bolts designer. That got me thinking about the importance of those nuts and bolts. You wouldn't take off down the road in a car without 'em. So let's take a look at some of those nuts and bolts of design.
My first newspaper job was putting together the sports agate page at the Northwest Florida Daily News. I absolutely loved it and devoted nights to making sure it was perfect. Everything lined up, all the tabs in the standings straight as an arrow ... just anal as could be. I even did the cutting and pasting myself some nights. And this was before pagination. This was glue and strips of paper and razor blades and proof after proof to see if tab measurements were aligned. (I'd say "back in the day," but I hate that phrase.)
So let's see your sports agate page. Please try to send me a jpg over the next couple days and I'll post them later this week.

The haunted blog

On the front of the R-A today is the house that inspired the soon-to-be released flick "A Haunting in Connecticut." It's in Southington, a neighbor of Waterbury. On the right is a house that is, with a few exceptions, very similar. Same builder most likely, around 1920, and the owner is dying to do some spring yardwork. How do I know? That's my house.

Some other pages from this morning ... New Haven goes big with basketball. Norwich goes big with bowling. And Lewiston goes big with a refer headline for a breaking news.

Day Of The Big Heads

Big doings in Washington on Wednesday, so roll out the big heads ... the Boston Herald being the geographical exception.

Talk back time

I'll be heading to the SND board meeting soon and I need help from you. Please reply to these questions:
1) How do you see SND and what does it (or should) do for you?
2) Any interest in a New England "meetup" similar to one in New York recently? It's similar to a seminar or quick course with speakers, etc.
If you aren't an SND member, tell me why.
Please reply sometime this week. Send e-mails to sgriffin@rep-am.com.

Designer of the week

Our next designer of the week is Babette Augustin of The Providence Journal. Babette's been in Providence as a photo editor and designer since 1993. Unlike most papers, the photo editors there also design pages. Interesting. She has also designed business, sports, local, the Sunday paper, travel, arts, food etc, as well as working the photo assignment desk. Babette has an undergraduate degree in photojournalism from Boston University and an MFA in imaging arts from Rochester Institute of Technology. Before Providence, she worked as photojournalist in upstate New York and Washington, D.C. She lives with two beagles and a crazed Jack Russell terrier. Check out the pages ...

Previous DOW: Michael DeSalvo from Danbury, Conn., and Jill Blanchette of New London, Conn. Want to be next? E-mail me.

NENA awards

AP -- Ten newspapers were honored Friday in Boston for outstanding reporting done in the spirit of courage and independence of Publick Occurrences, the nation's first newspaper, by the New England Newspaper Association. The winners included the Republican-American's project about Burmese refugees who wound up in Waterbury. The series became a subject of one our Newspapers Matter ads.
Winners included:
If you've got any nice pages from these stories, I'd love to post them.
— The Sunday Telegraph, of Nashua, N.H., for its series, "For rent," which examined the woes of rental housing in Nashua, with an in-depth report from the perspective of both landlord and tenant.

— The Republican-American, of Waterbury, Conn., for "Refugees add life to Brass City," a year-long series on the integration of Burmese refugees to Waterbury. The series prompted the U.S. State Department to look into the practices of a long-standing refugee resettlement organization, which resulted in the revocation of its contract.

— The Burlington (Vt.) Free Press, for its investigation of the kidnapping, rape and slaying of 12-year-old Brooke Bennett, allegedly by her uncle with the help of her stepfather and the online social networking site, MySpace.com. The paper's coverage led to the governor's push to pass legislation that would keep tighter reins on repeat sex offenders.

— The Berkshire Eagle, Pittsfield, Mass., for "Healthcare in the Berkshires," a three-day series examining the state of healthcare in the Berkshires.

— Foster's Daily Democrat, Dover, N.H., for "Defused," the gripping tale of a man who took hostages at a Hillary Clinton campaign office.

— Sun Journal, Lewiston, Maine, for its reporting on Rumford, Maine, which provided detailed but fair coverage of nutty small-town politicians.

— The Keene (N.H.) Sentinel, for "Without a Net," a 360-degree look at the way businesses get around paying worker's comp insurance and the consequences when workers are injured.

— The Standard-Times, New Bedford, Mass., for "The New Immigrants," a comprehensive look at the newcomers who helped make the city of New Bedford, from Cape Verdeans who worked the cranberry bogs in the 1910s to Guatemalans who work the seafood plants today.

— The weekly Provincetown (Mass.) Banner, for "Shifts, Myths and Truths," a look at how Provincetown businesses might thrive in a downturning economy—plus rebuttals from business owners who can't find good help.

— The weekly Goffstown (N.H.) News, for "Healing together," the story about a mother and daughter who got help from modern medicine and from their community.

Who should own newspapers?

Super-rich philanthropist Eli Broad talks about newspapers -- "You can't afford to lose newspaper journalism" -- and how they "ought to owned by foundations or wealthy families not looking for any real great economic return." See the video here.

Late-night Garden party

** UPDATE: Syracuse's coverage **
Wow. It's Friday morning and I just found out UConn lost to Syracuse in six overtimes. SIX! I left the office at 12:30 a.m., with a few minutes left in the third OT and the Huskies up several points. I left the front page so a co-worker could just plug in a score for our second (and final) edition. Since I don't have AM radio in the car -- thanks to a falling branch disconnecting the antenna embedded in the rear window -- I went to sleep assuming UConn won. What a finish I missed! Anybody stay late to get in the score? How'd your paper (1A and Sports) handle the late, important game? Speak up, please.
Click here to find out about the Courant's Sports cover, from designer David Holub. Their page went out about 1:55 a.m.
David wrote:
"Like any deadline-threatening game, we had a photo that would work for either a UConn win or loss for first edition that we would sub out for later editions. We had a columnist writing at the game and had two column options for first edition: If they won, we would have the column for all eds. If they lost, we had a plug ready. We also had separate charts ready to go for a win or loss.
For the first OT, the pressroom was set to let the pages go late.
When it went to a second OT is where things got interesting. I had to scrap my original game design and substitute a terrible, terrible, terrible standalone plug photo to take up the entire space of the UConn package. However, we had to have the original package ready to go at a moment's notice, win or lose, for when the game ended. Then we waited patiently during the third and fourth OTs.
Once the game hit four OTs was when it started to get that historic feel. The night sports editor, Scott Powers, made the call to scrap our now-modest package for a six-column head-and-photo package and I began feverishly re-designing, complete with a new win photo and lose photo.
I believe we flipped the page in about 15-20 minutes and had the all-new 6 OT game page at 1:50 a.m., 20-something minutes from the game's end. Much to the amazing teamwork of the Courant reporters and sports copy desk.
Now, anything less than six overtimes will just feel . . . meh."

Anyone else?

Thoughts and prayers needed

This certainly isn't the type of thing I expected to write when I began this blog for SND. I learned last night that Jim Kuykendall, a terrific graphic artist at the Hartford Courant, has been moved to a hospice because of the pancreatic cancer he's been battling for some time. Melanie Shaffer, design director at the Courant, said the news was stunning. "He has been so upbeat and lighthearted about his condition, always cracking little jokes, but then we got the news today," Melanie wrote.
Send a card or flowers here: The Connecticut Hospice 100 Double Beach Road, Branford, CT 06405; (203) 315-7500
If you never checked out Jim's portfolio on the old Newspagedesigner, you really missed some nice work. I met him at a New England awards banquet a year or two ago. Nice guy and a fellow native Floridian. Here are a few samples, plus a photo of Jim in a triathlon back in 2000. If anyone has a link to his work, please pass it on.