Poll results: What is your view of advertising on page 1?

THE RESULTS ARE IN…in yet another 100-plus-vote poll. This one drew 109 votes and the top response won almost half the votes. Check it out for yourself. Comments from the poll follow the chart.

COMMENTS:

Looks like I’m the only one that voted for “Bring it on”! Must be the only salesperson that visits. Just a reminder, every employee is on full commission. If nobody out there buys ads, nobody here has a job.

Okay, but it should never dominate over the news hole.

Not a fan, but it generates so much revenue you can’t say no.

It’s not just the front page. Ad $s to support journalism is the devil, per… [comment ends]

OK (with reluctance), but make them be really nicely designed ads.

As owner I’ll take ads anywhere they want them!

One strip ad at bottom and one corner ad, any front page.

One ad on the front is an honest declaration that a newspaper is a business.

Poll: What is your view of advertising on the front page?

READER BARRY HOFF wrote in late March to ask:

“Ed,

Have you ever done a poll question on advertising on the front page? May not be well suited to a design blog, but I noticed the ads on Brian Lazzuri’s page and thought, ‘I wonder if Ed has ever addressed advertising on the front?’ ”

I thought Barry had hit on something, so I wrote back:

“Barry:

I’ve flagged your note. Good idea! Looking forward to posting that poll in a couple of weeks. What questions do you think I should ask about it? I mean, if I ask whether people like/don’t like ads on the front I think I know what kind of response we’re gonna get. Any ideas?

Ed”

Barry responded quickly: “Now you’re gonna make me think!” and then offered some questions for the poll, which I’ve posted verbatim.

NOTE: If you want to see what too many ads can do to page one, be sure to check out the pages from Lauri Shillings further down on this page: …and…speaking of ads on page 1…

So…have at it! What are your thoughts about ads on page 1? Hate ’em? Don’t care? Here’s the poll…

Poll results: Your page design software

ONE HUNDRED VOTES…MOST EVER in a poll on Ed Henninger’s Blog! So the percentages and the vote totals are the same number.  I’ve been mathematically brain dead since my sophomore year in high school, but even I can make sense of that.

Interesting that I described Quark 5 in the poll as “…missing in action” and there were no votes—zero…zip…nada—for Quark 5.

Comments from the blog follow the chart. Here are some comments that accompanied the poll:

“InDesign CS2…ah, yesteryear!”

“InDesign CS (we’re way behind!)”

“InDesign, but still missing the speed of Quark.”

“CS3 and I HATE it.”

“InDesign CS3 and CS4—waiting until all my equipment is Into to go CS4.”

Joel Martin: “We upgraded to ID from Quark 4 (and in some cases 3.3) about five years ago. Some of our people are still using CS1.”

Joel Martin: “I retract that last. I did a double-check and the last CS1 users were upgraded last summer. We’re slowly but surely achieving uniformity. Now if we all had the same fonts…”

David Merrill: “We finally upgraded from Quark to InDesign late last year, and it’s been a relief to me. I started with Quark 3.3 back when Windows 3.1 was the hot new kid on the block, and it and Photoshop became my good friends (and generated some income). Quark’s propensity for crashing Windows burned into my brain the computer adage “Save early and often.” I got all the way to Quark 7.3 before I resigned myself to the fact that they had never solved that basic crashing issue, and although Kevin Slimp claims that Quark 8 has finally leveled the playing field with InDesign, I just couldn’t see spending our limited budget continuing on that path.”

Jay Dickerson: “I’m curious about those who voted “Other”–what are you using?”

Lauri Shillings: “Our building has several versions of InDesign installed- but not everywhere and are using the Ver. 6 Quark for news pages. We are forced to use a much older version (4.0) of it for our classifieds- due to the ‘baseview’ we are chained to for our database…. arrgghh. How many others out there have this same issue? I wish we could all upgrade to one thing on every workstation!!!”

Karen Nelson: “We are with you there, Lauri. We use Q6 for news, Q4 for classifieds/legals. Our databases (APT) for the two sides don’t talk. It gets super-frustrating. And what with the redundant export-import process we have to do to get things to film, we run a huge risk of press stops. A couple workstations have InDesign but only for commercial jobs — not our own stuff. For those using InDesign, what front-end system do you use?”

Poll: Your page design software

POLL CLOSED.

WE HAVE 100 VOTES.

RESULTS TO BE POSTED SOON.

Thanks to all who voted.

ADOBE HAS INTRODUCED Creative Suite 5! As in the past, the new software has a whole new set of capabilities. For those still on QuarkXPress, it will be another disappointment—knowing that there’s something much better out there and that they will have to continue to plod along with Quark. I know some who are still on Quark 4!

So, here’s our poll. Let us know what you’re using at your place—and don’t forget to leave a comment or two!

Poll results: My pet peeve as a designer is…

THE RESULTS ARE IN. A total of 53 votes in this poll, with no clear-cut-absolutely-runaway response. The comments tell some tales.

Here’s the breakdown:

Comments and “other” entries were fascinating..and fun:

Two major peeves of mine:

1) A shoulder-lurker micromanaging a project (down to the font size).

2) Those certain 2 or 3 people that will come to you with 10+ sets of changes on any given project instead of figuring out what they wanted before they brought it to me to work on.

……..

Being told to re-do something: duh, if it’s not already perfect, why?

……..

Hovering “customer.”

……..

Being a “living mouse” for a publisher who micromanages design work.

……..

Graphics or files of insufficient quality.

……..

Sales reps.

……..

Being asked to redesign a finalized page.

……..

Doing a nice, clean design only to have the advertiser or editor fill it up!

……..

Someone standing over my shoulder, micromanaging a project (poorly).

……..

Not having enough space for the art, or any good art.

……..

Having so many other duties, I don’t get to design much.

……..

Being told: “We’re producing a 56 page tab…in two days.”

……..

Getting a centerpiece that’s pre-designed by the people at the budget meeting.

If you didn’t get your vote in…sorry, Charlie…the poll is closed. Another one coming in a week or two.

Poll: Your pet peeve as a designer

IT’S BEEN A WHILE since we’ve had a poll here, and I think I have one with a topic that will get your juices flowing (or your blood boiling!).

Here’s the question: What’s your pet peeve as a designer? Now, there are all kinds of possible responses to this one, but I’m going with my favorite four. You can offer something different, if you want, under “other.” I don’t think this is going to be a tough one for you to answer. Unfortunately, you can only pick one.

Have fun!

If you have any ideas for poll topics, please pass them on. I’d like to try running a poll every couple of weeks or so.

Poll results: All-cap headlines

THE QUESTION WAS “All-cap headlines: do they work,” and it’s clear most of you who responded (41 total votes) think “Sometimes…on the right feature package.” That response drew 20 of the 41 votes, for about 49%

The negative response, “Nope…they’re just another design fad,” drew the next-highest number of votes, but halved the winning response with only 10 votes.

“Sure…what’s the fuss about” and “Yes…to bring special emphasis to a news story,” each drew five votes.

The one “other” response? “All caps are hard to read, they say.”

What’s the point? Well, for those of you who responded, it seems you’re just not all that concerned about the use of all-caps headlines.

The next poll? Not sure. What would you like to see? Type? Color? Structure? I’m open to suggestions!