JAY SHARED SOME PAGES with us a while back, but now has greater reason to do so…the Gazette’s coverage of a recent flood. Jay is advertising manager at the Gazette. Some of the Gazette’s page follow, with comments from Ed.
FROM JAY:
Hey Ed:
Biblical-level flooding drenched Galena and East Dubuque July 27-28. The issue following the flooding, The Galena Gazette put together an 8-page section chronicling the relief efforts, deaths, and work of emergency personnel.
Again, we’re a 5,000-circulation weekly newspaper in northwest Illinois. Thanks for your input!
FROM ED:
1. The nameplate/photo package has to be fixed. It cheapens your newspaper.
2. Given the extraordinary situation, I’d have worked to pull the McDonald’s ad for this issue, with a make-up later.
3. Good idea to run the piece from your publisher…but I’d have dropped the “Inside
label.
4. Good package here with the lead photo and the teasers to the inside.
5. Glad to see you’ve adopted the use of the QR code.
FROM ED:
1. Another good package here, though the bottom photo breaks the modular package. You might consider redesigning your masthead and the gray box into a horizontal package to avoid such problems in the future.
2. The fyi box background seems a bit too pink…and I’d suggest redoing the shadow so it’s not so strong. The subtle touch is always classier.
FROM ED:
1. I see two or three other photos here that have more impact that the one you chose for the lead. I especially like the sinkhole (top left) and the railroad tracks (third down on left) photos.
2. It really hurts this page to place the “Recovering from devastation” story in the middle of the package. I’d have placed it to the right, with the disaster declaration package. With some reworking of type sizes, it would easily have fit there.
3. The rainfall numbers (bottom right) would have been better done in a column chart.
FROM ED:
1. A good inside package.
2. I like the photo of the boy with the hummingbird but I wonder why it is so tilted. Is that on purpose, to add “visual appeal” to the photo? If so, I think it’s a practice we need to abandon. Tilted photos are more distracting and unnerving than they are appealing. They always look like a mistake. With v-e-r-y rare exceptions, I am a curmudgeon on this issue.
