SO FAR, MORE THAN 50 readers have voted in the survey on photo retouching.

The chart above shows results to this point. Right, no numbers there yet. I admit it…it’s a tease.

If you haven’t jumped in with your vote yet, this is your shot.

What else fun have you got to do today? Floss? Clean the bathroom? Wash the dog?

Let us know what you think. Full report on results will be posted next week.

ACCORDING TO A RECENT SURVEY, “70 percent of Americans, including 69 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds, say they prefer to read print and paper communications than reading off a screen.”

The survey was commissioned by Two Sides, the fast-growing non-profit organization created to promote the responsible production, use and sustainability of print and paper. So, it may be a bit self-serving (hmmm…wonder if that’s ever happened before!). Still, there are some findings that may be of interest to those of us who know newspapers are not dying.

It also says 68 percent of those surveyed believe that paper records are more sustainable than electronic record storage and that paper is more pleasant to handle and touch than other media (67 percent).

Here’s the full report.

But occasionally I receive page that’s just too different to not post. This is one of them. The page comes from Kristin Coker at the Times and Democrat in Orangeburg, SC.

FROM KRISTIN: It has been awhile…I have a page that I hope you will like because you inspired it.  I do know how much you like negative space. For this page we had a few pictures that were kind of ho-hum. Thankfully, the page was faith-inspired and I loved the headline my editor gave me to work with. It gave me the idea  to form a cross on the page and to leave everything else white. A few people thought I lost my marbles when they saw it run off the press—until they got that it formed a cross. So hopefully, everyone else will get the idea and like it, too?  What do you think?

FROM ED: I think it’s different and appealing. Not too sure about the use of the swirly-thingies above the headline, though. I think they may call too much attention to themselves. A question: Why are the headline and drop head in purple? Another question: What does “anchoring” have to do with the story? Not sure I get the meaning. Those points aside, I like it!

How about the rest of you? Would you have had the moxie to try this? Would your editor/publisher have hyperventilated about all the negative space?

Jump in with your comments.

Last week was Opinion pages, the previous week, front pages.

These are index pages from college magazines.

Some interesting/exciting stuff. Print design is doing very well, thank you.

Here are two photos from the batch I received.

My reaction to the top pic was: “I wouldn’t use the first photo of the Pope. Looks like he has a crane growing out of his nose!” I also didn’t like the fact that the photo was mostly of the Pope’s back.

On the second photo, I commented: “I retouched it a bit (see retouched photo, below) to take some of the distracting smudges out of the background. Don’t know if you have a policy on that. I think the retouched shot is a lot cleaner, but I leave the decision on its use up to the two of you.”

Well, the folks at The Times and Democrat in Orangeburg, SC, have their hands on a keyboard, not a shovel.

And here’s what its editors think:

A NEW YEAR IS FULLY UNDER WAY. It will mark The Times and Democrat’s 131st anniversary as Orangeburg’s newspaper.

We point to longevity to make a point about ourselves: We plan to be around.

That’s right, a newspaper is telling its readers it plans to be around – this despite what some would have you believe. The naysayers point to long-term declines in the circulation of print products on top of competition for readers and revenue as reasons for the ultimate demise of newspapers.

We’ve made the point before about The Times and Democrat having many thousands more readers every day than ever, with our printed edition and the Internet broadening the way we provide information for many. We continue to distribute more than 12,000 printed editions of the newspaper every day, plus visitors to TheTandD.com number from 15,000-20,000 daily. More people than ever are reading about The T&D Region and its people.

We’ll bet, however, that plenty of people for whom The T&D and TheTandD.com are primary news sources would, at least initially, agree with a Pew Research Center for Excellence in Journalism finding in a recent study: Nearly seven in 10 respondents said the absence of their local newspaper would not have a big impact on their ability to keep up with information about their community.

That conclusion prompts questions. If the newspaper and its team of journalists working on local news are gone, who replaces them? Who is going to be out there digging for news about Orangeburg and surroundings? A medium for distributing the news is not the issue. From simple emails, to blogs, to social media, “news” can travel fast. But what kind of information are you getting? Rumor? Gossip? And just how far is anyone else going to be sure a story is followed, that complete information is conveyed over hours and days?

Without the newspaper, there would have to be, well, a newspaper.

Maybe that’s why the same Pew study found that, “The data show that newspapers play a much bigger role in people’s lives than many may realize. Newspapers (both the print and online versions, though primarily print) rank first or tie for first as the source people rely on most for 11 of the 16 different kinds of local information asked about – more topics than any other media source.”

According to Pew, newspapers rank as the top source for news on community events, crime, taxes, local government, arts and culture, social services, zoning and development. Newspapers tie with the Internet as the top source for news on housing, schools, and jobs, and tie with TV as the top source for local political news.

As David Carr of The New York Times wrote: “Forgive an old newspaper hack a moment of sentimentality, but it is somehow reassuring that a newspaper still has traction in an environment preoccupied by social media. It makes sense when you think about it: Newspapers convey a sense of place, of actually being there, that digital media can’t. When is the last time somebody handed you a website?”

The Times and Democrat will be here for your future and the future of Orangeburg, continuing to play the lead role in providing information to the people of our region. We’ll do it through printed newspapers, and we’ll do it through our website, plus social media and other avenues. People here and elsewhere are looking increasingly for credible reporting of the type that newspapers will continue to provide.

Last week, I posted Page 1 winners. Next week, winning magazine pages.

This week, the winning Opinion page entries.

The following pages are in order, first place winner to fifth place.

•

Beginning this week,

Ed’s Monthly design column 

 will be  posted here on

Ed Henninger’s Blog

 Look for it on the COLUMNS page

The blog eventually will become part of Ed’s new web site.

“IT’S SO MUCH A PART of our daily life that it’s invisible—yet quite visible.”

The quote is from Steven Heller, author of more than 90 books on design and typography, talking about type design. I’d recommend any of Heller’s books to those of you interested in learning more about type and design).

Heller is just one of those interviewed for this 3+ minute piece.

I think you’ll enjoy it. I know you’ll learn from it.

I’m delighted with the entries I saw. Narrowing those entries down to only five winners was difficult.

The following pages are in order, first place winner to fifth place. I’ve asked for a link to the contest web site and I’ll update when that comes.

In the next two weeks, I’ll show you the magazine and opinion page entries.

This week, page 1 entries.