NewsDesigner.com's SND Winners' Gallery is now live! There are currently about 40 winners and close to 100 pages. If you've got a winning page, photo or graphic, e-mail it to me. Don't let your competition get all the attention!

And comments are enabled, so feel free to leave some, especially if you were a judge.

>26th Edition SND Winners [NewsDesigner.com]

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Layne Smith, one of the Dallas Morning News artists who worked on the NASCAR hauler graphic disqualified at the SND contest, has posted a spirited defense of the graphic and his integrity, and calls on the judges to further explain their decision.

Hell yeah we bully the judges into enlightening us. How many years have hundreds of us flipped through page after page after page of award winning designs and graphics thinking "WTF were the judges thinking!?" Reinforcing the belief that the judging process consists of some secret society of SND glad-handers, real or perceived, is a big mistake.

I stand before you all to defend myself and my decisions. Yet the judges are somehow safe from that responsibility? They can judge the work that defines who a lot of us are and then shrink back into the shadows and watch the sparks fly? As the single most responsible party for this whole fiasco, you can bet I have every right to call them out. Those who know me know I love to learn, I love to help others learn. That's why I'm here. That's why they should be here too.

>DMN graphic disqualified from SND silver [VisualEditors.com]

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VisualMente today reports on a Dallas Morning News graphic about a NASCAR hauler that was on the verge of winning a silver award at the SND competition when one of the judges noticed that incorporated into the graphic was the logo of NewTek, a company that makes the 3-D program Lightwave. The entry was disqualified. Judges say they thought it crossed an ethical line, and Morning News staffers say they were just trying to add logos to give the illustration a sense of the reality of a heavily sponsor-driven sport.

VisualMente has extensive responses, in English, from Jeff Goertzen, who was one of the judges, and Chris Morris, art director at the Morning News. Here are a couple of excerpts:

Jeff Goertzen:

At first we were all stunned, but as reality sank in, we knew the implications this would have on the entry. NewTek is the company that makes the 3-D program Lightwave and is the program of choice for many informational graphics artists in the newspaper industry, including the artists of the Dallas Morning News. In fact, NewTek is a co-sponsor of the Lightwave workshops organized by the Dallas Morning News and SND. As these facts surfaced in our discussion between our panel of judges and supervisors, it became obvious that there was a serious breach of ethics with this entry. Ultimately the graphic was disqualified.

Richard Curtis, USA Today graphics editor who was of the judges on the panel said, "If one of my artists had done this, he or she would have been fired."

I've always emphasized that informational graphics are every bit as much a part of journalism as the stories we print in our papers. Our work must be 100 percent credible. The facts must be accurate and the content believable. Can a graphic be libelous? Can it slander? Can it pleagarize? Of course it can. And this graphic by the Dallas Morning News was no exception to the rules of journalism. And the judges were in agreement with that.

Chris Morris:

What do you think about the disqualification of the graphic by the SND judges? Do you agree and understand their reasons?

We felt it was extreme. Giving "shout-outs" to friends, family, etc. in published work is not unheard of in the history of journalism, but it is not practiced here and would not be tolerated. In this case, it was an image that DEMANDED colorful, logo decorations and the NewTek logo was one of many we placed into the graphic. But we did not do so with any motives other than splash of color and corporate identity "feel".

If the judges felt we were attempting to "connect" with this software company, that is their choice. But there is also an Amoco logo on the graphic and we also added EDS, a local Fortune 500 company. We stood to gain nothing from the petroleum company and expect nothing from EDS. We simply needed logos. But because the software we used to draw the graphic happened to be NewTek's creation, there was a connection that was too close for comfort for the judging panel. Note: A close friend was a member of that panel, and he voted to disqualify the graphic. He said it was one of the better graphic pieces in the show, and it pained him to vote to eliminate the graphic, but he felt it crossed an ethical line. Again, I think it can be interpreted many ways, in varying degrees. But without any chance to explain, I think the image screamed exploitation to those who KNEW it was the NewTek logo, and probably extrapolated that we gained in some way by displaying the logo as we did. We did not. It was just readily available.

*Update: In a VisualEditors.com thread, contest coordinator Michael Whitley clarifies some of the circumstances.

Regardless of what the judges say or feel now, the intent of including the icon was not something that could be considered since we had no way of knowing the artists' intent. Anything about intent was dismissed by the contest coordinator (me) on its face in the discussion. The judges were also asked to prove that it was the Newtek logo and given internet access to do so.

Basically the question of disqualification came down to this: Was it an ethical breach to include the logo regardless of intent or other circumstances? Knowing that inclusion of the icon was the only thing they could consider the judges answer was yes.

Chris Morris also weighs in.

>Ethics Of Journalism Must Apply To Graphics (Jeff Goertzen) [VisualMente]
>About the Hauler graphic (Chris Morris) [VisualMente]

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The March issue of Newspapers & Technology has a good string-gathering article on the growing tabloid wave. It scooped E&P by three weeks on the Journal and Courier's Berliner conversion and includes this quote from Tony Smithson, production director at The Courier-Journal in Louisville:

“I think, personally, that within five years to 10 years, broadsheets will be an anachronism,” Smithson said. “You won’t see them much.”

Also, in a quote my Sun-Times pals will love, John Temple, Rocky Mountain News editor, publisher and president, said:

“The truth is, still, that in mainstream newspapering you don’t see tabloids. There’s the Rocky and Newsday and a few others — the Chicago Sun-Times, the New York Post — (but) really only Newsday and the Rocky are what I would call general interest.”

Hmm. Rocky Mountain News circulation: 258,000; Chicago Sun-Times circulation: 430,000.

>Tabloids to broadsheets: Drop dead [Newspapers & Technology]

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The South Florida Sun-Sentinel today published a graphic today (above, click for larger view) produced in collaboration with Tribune sister paper the Orlando Sentinel that shows a 1996 Terri Schiavo brain scan the Sentinel obtained from court documents in 2003. Interestingly, after the graphic was produced, Sentinel editors decided that the CT scan was "ghoulish" and opted to kill that portion of the graphic while the Sun-Sentinel ran the entire graphic.

Here's David Wersinger, Orlando Sentinel graphics editor, on how it played out:

On Tuesday, we thought it might be interesting to do a medical graphic on Terri's condition. I dug up the ct scans, but the reporter who initially received them was covering the story in Pinellas Park. No experts in Central Florida were willing to comment on the scans, so we turned to the Sun-Sentinel.

Len De Groot, the Sun-Sentinel's Assistant Graphics Director, was able to track down the chairman of the University of Miami's neurology department, who was VERY interested in looking at the scans. We made huge jpegs of the scans and sent them to Len, who in turned showed them to the UM doctor. We decided the graphic would contain the scan showing damage to Terri's brain, plus information on brain waves and how the brain functions.

I mentioned the graphic at our 4 p.m. news meeting and our editor, Charlotte Hall and Managing Editor, Mark Russell, immediately raised concerns.

- what new ground we're we breaking showing the scans?
- were the scans open to interpretation?
- were the scans in good taste? Would they pass the breakfast test? (Our editor called the scan 'ghoulish.')
- were the scans too old?

My argument for the graphic was that it got to the heart of the Schiavo case without taking either side: No emotion, just hard fact for the reader to see.

Sentinel Assistant Managing Editor/Visuals Bonita Burton:

Our top editors thought it was a terrific graphic, but their biggest concern was one of taste. Whether it was too gruesome to show the inside of a woman's brain as she lay dying. It was pitched in the morning meeting, when the concerns first were raised. What I loved most about David's determination was that he didn't just say "OK" and give up. He built the graphic anyway, and edited it to be as clinical and non-emotional as possible, knowing all the while it was going to be a tough sell. We took the completed graphic to the afternoon meeting, and explained how we had addressed the taste issue by sticking to the scientific facts. We also added a normal brain scan for context and desaturated the color to make it less sensational.
 
We finally played our last card, the "well, the Sun-Sentinel is going to run it card," which prompted a call from our managing editor to theirs. My understanding is that she said she understood our taste issues, but didn't share them.
 
I wish we could have prevailed because I was very proud of the power of its graphic storytelling, and it was our exclusive. Seeing Terri Schiavo's brain damage is a such a different experience than simply reading about it. But, I understand why the call was made, and it was an interesting discussion - especially with editors who encourage us to pursue bold, daring approaches.

Would you run it?

*Update: From Len De Groot, here's the Sun-Sentinel end of the story:

The idea for the graphic arose when a photographer suggested that medical scans of Schiavo’s brain might be available in the court record. Based on this, we contacted Orlando Sentinel Graphics Editor Dave Wersinger, who tracked down the CT scans — which the Sentinel had acquired in 2003 — and shipped them to us.

We got the scans on Tuesday, and asked health reporter Bob LaMendola to arrange for an expert to comment. He found Dr. Walter Bradley, chairman of the neurology department at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine. We sent Bradley a copy of the scans and LaMendola and Senior Graphics Reporter Dan Niblock interviewed him in a conference call. We alerted senior editors that we were working on a graphic, but told them we were going to get it into shape before presenting it.

On Wednesday, the graphic was introduced at the 11 a.m. news meeting. The response was favorable, but editors were concerned that it was the opinion of a single doctor, and that we would try to present it as the “final word” on the issue. We addressed these issues with heavy attribution to Dr. Bradley in all areas of the graphic, and LaMendola sent the images to two other neurologists, both of whom agreed with with Bradley’s assessment. To give our editors even more confidence, and because of the heavy attribution to Dr. Bradley, we also took the unusual step of having him proof the graphic to ensure that we had properly documented his comments.

The updated graphic was presented at the 4 p.m. meeting as a candidate for 1A. At this point we ran into two key issues:

1. Governor Bush came forth saying that a state neurologist had examined the same scans we were using, and had said additional tests should be done.
2. The story the graphic was to accompany was not yet done, and editors felt that they could not make a decision without seeing the text first.

Based on these issues, we decided to reconvene at 6 p.m. to consider the graphic and the story as a whole, and to see how daily developments would affect the story.

At the 6 p.m. meeting, editors were split as to whether the graphic should be on 1A. One group felt that the graphic illustrated much of the discussion on Schiavo’s physiological state and deserved to be on the front page. Others felt that there was dissenting medical opinion (Bush’s expert) that wasn’t reflected in the graphic, and some felt that this could even lead to confusion among our readers. Some in this group felt it might be best to hold the graphic a day. Still others felt that it simply didn’t pass the breakfast test.

We had a healthy and lively debate, and in the end it was decided that the graphic by all means deserved to be in the newspaper, but would not appear on the front page. Both the graphic and the story ran on 14A, a full page we set aside for expanded coverage of the issue.

The graphic actually changed little during this process. The key issues that were addressed including making sure it was very clear that we were simply presenting an independent doctor’s analysis, and making sure that we stuck to the science. Any conclusions that might be made were left to the reader.

The final graphic is here, and there's more discussion here.

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On the heels of the Jersey Journal's announcement of an impending switch to tabloid format, Editor and Publisher reports that the Journal and Courier, a 37,000 Gannett daily in Lafayette, Ind., will convert to a Berliner format when it fires up new presses next year. It will be the first North American daily to be produced in the Berliner format, which is about 12.5"x18.5".

I asked Mario Garcia if he thinks the Berliner format is a good move for American publishers.

"It is a way to go "compact" without losing some of the attributes that many editors cling to in their thinking of larger meaning more credible, serious, less tabloidy. Berliner size newspapers can be very elegant (Le Monde, La Vanguardia), and we are now doing some nice conversions of broadsheets to Berliner. It allows for copy to stay pretty much almost at same length levels as in the broadsheet; photos can be displayed amply and well. Not bad. But, at the end of the day, I think Berliner is EASIER on the editors who hate to see themselves "going tabloid". It is, as I always say, a teddy bear to cling to. Yes, Virginia, we are compact, but we are not tabloid. The Berliner format does that. Therapeutic, elegant, more compact than......and some of the most credible dailies in the world use it with grace.

"I predict that for most of those adventurous American dailies whose publishers decide to go compact, Berliner will be the way to go."

He may be right. I just hope that publishers realize they'll have to do a lot more than lop off the bottom 3.5" of the page and leave it at that. Last thing we need is to make readers feel like we're giving them 16 percent less newspaper.

Garcia, by the way, is currently in London working on converting The Observer to Berliner format. The Observer, which publishes on Sundays, and its daily sister paper The Guardian are scheduled to make the conversion in the spring of 2006, although there have been rumors about that it may happen as early as this summer.

In other British Isles tabloid news, the Belfast Telegraph, a 134-year-old evening broadsheet, has begun publishing a morning tabloid edition. (Thanks, Malcolm!)

>In Indiana, Another Daily Plans Switch from Broadsheet to Smaller Size [Editor & Publisher]

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Kudos to the folks who put on a fine Front Page Design Quick Course in L.A. this weekend: Michael Whitley, Kevin Wendt, Cassie Armstrong, Robb Montgomery and Jonathon Berlin. A few pictures are here, if that sort of thing interests you.

With the success of tabloid conversions of European newspapers and declining circulation stateside, one of the big questions in American newspaper design circles has been when American broadsheets will begin to make the switch. And who will do it?

The New York Times reports today that the Jersey Journal, a 26,700-circulation Newhouse paper in Jersey City, N.J., will make the conversion to tabloid on April 25.

"We had to address the declining circulation of the daily," said Steve Newhouse, editor in chief of The Jersey Journal and chairman of Advance.net, which oversees the local Web sites of the Newhouse newspapers and the national Web sites of Condé Nast. "We were nervous about putting out a tabloid, but we're making sure that The Jersey Journal has a future."

And it's not just Newhouse. Knight Ridder Newspapers chairman Anthony Ridder says that he will soon identify two or three KR markets where they will experiment with coverting broadsheets to tabs.

"Tabs seem to work better in larger metro areas," Mr. Ridder said. "Initially, people were recommending that we try this in smaller markets where there would be less at risk, but we're feeling now that to get the benefit out of it, we need to focus on our larger markets."

"So that's where we're headed," he added, declining to say in which markets he would start the experiment.

Jeff Jarvis, Advance.net creative director and a popular weblogger, consulted on the New Jersey project.

He said his experience online showed him that it was necessary for newspapers to change but that they were often resistant. "I'm amazed it took the industry this long to learn that readers preferred this format," he said of tabloids. "And that the format doesn't have cooties."

Also, you may start start hearing the term "compact" more.

"They don't call them tabloids," said Mario Garcia, a newspaper designer based in Tampa, Fla., who has overseen the conversions of 15 newspapers to smaller formats. "Tab smells of down-market, of blood, sex and guts. You want to go to a compact. That makes you think of a small Mercedes, a small Jaguar."

Editors, start your engines.

>The News Is Big. It's the Papers That Are Getting Small [The New York Times]

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The NPPA Best Of Photojournalism 2005 Picture Editing Contest winners have been announced. First place winners are:

Newspaper Front Page
The Albuquerque Tribune
Death toll hits 52,000
Mark Holm

Newspaper News Page
Los Angeles Times
Russian Hostage Crisis
Steve Stroud, Calvin Hom

Newspaper News Picture Story
The Palm Beach Post
Jeanne, Not Again
Mark Edelson, Pete Cross, John J. Lopinot, Jennifer Podis, Loren Hosack and staff

Newspaper Feature Page
The Hartford Courant
Olympic Bods
Allison Corbett

Newspaper Feature Story
San Francisco Chronicle
Lion Heart: The journey of Saleh
Kathleen Hennessy

Newspaper Sports Section Front
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Cards blast off
Larry Coyne, Chris Stanfield

Newspaper Sports Story
The Hartford Courant
The New Gentleman Boxer
Bruce Moyer

Newspaper Picture Page
The Albuquerque Tribune
Ukraine Election
Mark Holm

Newspaper Picture Story
Los Angeles Times
Five roadblocks to peace
Gail Fisher, Mary Cooney

Newspaper Illustrative Story Single
The Hartford Courant
Allison Corbett

Newspaper Illustrative story
Los Angeles Times
An Embargoed Classicism
Kirk McKoy, Cindy Hively

Newspaper Special Section
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
A Time to Live
John Dickson

Newspaper Recurring Feature
Detroit Free Press
Body and Mind
Nancy Andrews

Newspaper Picture Editor
The Palm Beach Post
Mark Edelson, Pete Cross, John Lopinot, Jennifer Podis, Loren Hosack

Newspaper Picture Editor of the Year
The Palm Beach Post
Mark Edelson

View more winners here.

The judging of the Best of Still Photojournalism portion of the competition began today.

The Sun-Times got their Irish up in the flag today.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Update: Testiness!

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Drawing conclusions: Illo Watch is a weblog by Andrea Moed that critiques The New York Times' daily Op-Ed illustration.

Drawing infusions: Drawn is a group weblog about illustration.

"Well It's Good News from Houston, Half My Friends are Drinkin' ": The Merc's Kenney Marlatt was in Houston last week, and reports (with pictures) that Hilton Americas, the site of this fall's Society for News Design workshop is "pretty dang nice." However, as befits a bar critic, his report on nearby purveyors of brewed and distilled beverages is breathlessly awaited.

Graphiblogging: There are two (2!) weblogs from the Malofiej Infographics Workshop and Conference currently happening in Pamplona, Spain. A bilingual one by Alberto Cairo, Geoff McGhee and John Grimwade is here, and one by VisualJournalism.com's Gert K. Nielsen is here. Judging of the contest ends today, and the workshop begins Thursday.

Mythbusting: Poynter's Anne Van Wagener takes on a few of those design myths occasionally spouted by those who have just enough design knowledge to be dangerous.

Typophilia: There's a new book out, edited by John D. Berry, that collects the best of the late, lamented U&lc.

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Michael Macor of the San Francisco Chronicle has been named Newspaper Photographer of the Year in the Pictures of the Year International competition. Marcus Bleasdale of the London-based Independent Photographers Group was named Magazine Photographer of the Year. In newspapers, The Los Angeles Times won for overall excellence in picture editing, and best use of photography awards went to The Albuquerque Tribune for newspapers under 100,000 and The Palm Beach Post for newspapers over 100,000.

Full press release here and full winners list here.

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Here's how today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution covered Friday's courthouse killings and manhunt.

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Win an SND award? I'm creating a gallery of winners. Hit the "Contact" link over on the right and send me a jpeg or pdf of the page(s) and, if you like, some words about the entry. And congrats!

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The database of Society for News Design contest winners is up and waiting for your tender searches. Be gentle!

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The Hartford Courant is a 250,000-circulation daily in Hartford, Conn. It was also named one of the world's best in 2000. The SND judges this year said:

This paper is a standout in the American newspaper market. The Hartford Courant distinguishes itself with an enduring elegance in design and typography. Though conservative in their approach, designers engage readers with the bold use of visuals. The contrast between their quiet, understated style and the gutsy photography and illustrations create a tension that captures the attention of readers.

More pages after the jump, and other World's Best-Designed Newspapers entries here.

(Thanks to Suzette Moyer, Melanie Shaffer and Jim Kuykendall for the pages)

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Der Tagesspiegel is a 150,000-circulation daily in Berlin. The SND judges said:

An elegant, sophisticated, yet newsy German paper that presents its content using a strong but subtle hierarchy. Der Tagesspiegel’s editors and designers show the best practices in building visual narratives through excellence in the use of typography, images, color and graphics. As a result, designers offer a pleasant, page-by-page news-enriching experience that rescues the value of broadsheet newspapers.

More pages after the jump, and other World's Best-Designed Newspapers entries here.

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The Chicago Tribune is considering a tabloid version, Chicago Crain's Business reports. Two staffers have seen pieces of a prototype and one says news designers were recently pulled to work on the project.

"Generation Y, that's their format," says Susan Mango Curtis, a former president of the Society of News Design who teaches at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. "They should all be thinking about going tabloid."

That sound you hear is Robb "Tab Boy" Montgomery chuckling.

>Tribune eyes tab edition [Crain's Chicago Business]

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Judges for the Society for News Design's 26th contest loved L.A. again this year. The Los Angeles Times again dominated the contest, winning a record 77 awards, 13 more than the impressive 64 they won last year. Here's the breakdown from SND (full press release after the jump):

The top 10 winners in all 21 categories were the Los Angeles Times and its magazine, 77 awards; The New York Times and its magazine, 60; The Boston Globe and its magazine, 49; El Mundo of Madrid and its magazines, 49; Chicago Tribune and its magazine, 39; Hartford Courant, 38; San Jose Mercury News, 38; Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio, 34; South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, 23; and National Post in Toronto, 22.

Of the 190 newspapers from 29 countries winning awards, the U.S. led with 697 awards, followed by 94 for Spain, 58 for Canada, 45 for Mexico, 35 for Portugal, 30 for Germany, 29 for Sweden, 16 for El Salvador, and 11 for Brazil. Other award winners included newspapers from Argentina, China, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, England, Estonia, Finland, Hong Kong, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Peru, Poland, Republic of China, Scotland, Switzerland and Turkey.

Full results database will be available at the SND site in mid-March.

*Update: 77 awards is apparently a record.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, March 4, 2005
Contact: Elise Burroughs, (401) 294-5234
Five publications earn "World’s Best-Designed Newspapers™" honors in SND international competition.
1,074 other winners chosen from a field of 15,020 entries.

North Kingstown, R.I. – The Society for News Design has named five "World’s Best-Designed Newspapers™" for the 26th annual "The Best of Newspaper Design™ Creative Competition." The winners were chosen from a field of more than 450 newspapers representing more than 29 countries that submitted work published in 2004.

The five "World’s Best-Designed Newspapers™" winners for 2004 are:
Der Tagesspiegel, Berlin, Germany, daily, circulation 150,000
Hartford Courant, Conn., USA, daily, circulation 250,000
Die Zeit, Hamburg, Germany, weekly, circulation 450,000
Marca, Madrid, Spain, daily, circulation 386,000
Svenska Dagbladet, Stockholm, Sweden, daily, circulation 189,000.

For the 20 other competition categories, judges awarded six Gold Medals, 79 Silver Medals and eight Judges’ Special Recognition awards. Awards of Excellence were bestowed on 986 entries.

The competition, co-sponsored by SND and Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, recognizes excellence in newspaper design, graphics and photography. The judging took place in two stages over two long weekends in February at the Newhouse School in Syracuse, N.Y. Entries numbered 15,020 in all 21 categories, a record for the 26-year-old competition.

The five judges for the "World’s Best-Designed Newspapers™" category, who made their choices Feb. 11-13, were:

Eduardo Danilo Ruiz, president of Danilo Black, SA de CV in Monterrey, Mexico
John M. Humenik, editor of the Quad-City Times in Davenport, Iowa
Leland F. "Buck" Ryan, associate professor at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Ky.
Sharon Roberts, assistant managing editor of the Austin American-Statesman, Texas
Bonnie Scranton, senior art director of Newsweek magazine in New York, N.Y.

The top 10 winners in all 21 categories were the Los Angeles Times and its magazine, 77 awards; The New York Times and its magazine, 60; The Boston Globe and its magazine, 49; El Mundo of Madrid and its magazines, 49; Chicago Tribune and its magazine, 39; Hartford (Conn.) Courant, 38; San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News, 38; Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio, 34; South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, 23; and National Post in Toronto, 22.

Of the 190 newspapers from 29 countries winning awards, the U.S. led with 697 awards, followed by 94 for Spain, 58 for Canada, 45 for Mexico, 35 for Portugal, 30 for Germany, 29 for Sweden, 16 for El Salvador, and 11 for Brazil. Other award winners included newspapers from Argentina, China, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, England, Estonia, Finland, Hong Kong, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Peru, Poland, Republic of China, Scotland, Switzerland and Turkey.

The 27 judges for the general competition, who met Feb. 18-21, were:

Tonia Cowan, graphics director, The Toronto Star, Ontario, Canada
Richard Curtis, M.E./graphics & photo, USA Today, McLean, Va.
Heidi de Laubenfels, AME/graphics, The Seattle Times, Wash.
Linda Eckstein, information graphics editor, Fortune Magazine, New York, N.Y.
Julie Elman, designer, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.
Tim Frank, senior editor/news design & graphics, The Arizona Republic, Phoenix
Janet Froelich, creative director, The New York Times Magazine, N.Y.
Bill Gaspard, news design director, Los Angeles Times, Calif.
Jeff Goertzen, senior graphics reporter, St. Petersburg Times, Fla.
Joe Kieta, editor, Merced Sun-Star, Calif.
David Kordalski, AME/visuals, The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio
Teresa Kriegsman, design editor, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.
Marcy Mangels, AME/news, The Journal News, White Plains, N.Y.
Matt Mansfield, deputy M.E., San Jose Mercury News, Calif.
Alberto Nava, art director, Récord Diario Deportivo, México City
Matt Petty, art director/design, San Francisco Chronicle, Calif.
Evangelia Philippidis, editorial features illustrator, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio
Brian Plonka, staff photographer, The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.
David Puckett, senior artist, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.
Gladys Rios, design consultant, Munster, Ind.
Alejandro Ros, design director, Pagiña 12, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Rob Schneider, sports design editor, The Dallas Morning News, Texas
Phaedra Singelis, deputy M.E., WashingtonPost.com, Arlington, Va.
Stacy Sweat, A.M.E./graphics & design, Chicago Tribune, Ill.
Juan Velasco, founder, 5W USA, New York, N.Y.
Chin Wang, design supervisor/features, The Boston Globe, Mass.
Sherman Williams, senior editor/visuals, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wis.

The full results of the competition will be posted on SND’s Web site at http://www.snd.org in mid-March. Users will be able to query the awards database by category and/or publication to find more details about the winning entries. Images of the winning entries will be posted to the Web site about a month later. Entrants will be notified by e-mail about the specifics of their winning entries.

The top award winners will be honored at the Society’s Annual Workshop and Exhibition in Houston, Texas, Oct. 8, 2005. Winners will be showcased with judges’ comments in the 26th Edition book, "The Best of Newspaper Design™," scheduled for release this fall.

The Society for News Design, founded in 1979, is a 2,500-plus member organization with membership in 54 countries – including four professional and 16 student affiliates – dedicated to improving news presentation and design in all media.

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Svenska Dagbladet is a 189,000-circulation daily in Stockholm. The SND judges said:

This is a Swedish daily that flourishes like a broadsheet despite the constraints of a compact format. Svenska Dagbladet’s structural design, color-coding and typographical hierarchy allow the reader to seamlessly navigate through the sections. The page grids accommodate even the smallest vertical charts and captions, helping designers build stories and create contrast with a sense of scale.

More pages after the jump, and other World's Best-Designed Newspapers entries here.

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Marca is a 386,000-circulation sports daily in Madrid. The SND judges said:

This sports daily faces the challenge of engaging a testosterone-laden audience with a design that is as lively and passionate as sports itself. Designers and editors use intense color and bold typography to nest narratives throughout the paper, scoring with a clever application of its logo as a design element. And then, in a time of sorrow and reflection, the paper is able to set aside its celebratory sensibility to display the Madrid train tragedy in a way the sports fan can appreciate.

More pages after the jump.

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I'm going to start posting a selection of pages from the winners of the World's Best-Designed Newspapers category of the recently judged Society for News Design's 26th Creative Competition. These pages aren't necessarily what was entered in the contest. The Die Zeit and Marca pages are from one of the weeks papers had to choose entries from, and the Courant pages are culled from designer's portfolios at News Page Designer, so some of those pages might have been entered. The Der Tagesspiegel and Svenska Dagbladet pages are from the last few weeks. Still, it should give a sense of the winners.

There were 423 newspapers entered in the category, with five receiving the unanimous vote of the judges. They are Die Zeit, Hamburg, Germany; Svenska Dagbladet, Stockholm, Sweden; Der Tagesspiegel, Berlin, Germany; Hartford Courant, Hartford, Conn.; and Marca, Madrid, Spain.

The SND press release on the awards says:

While these papers represent an array of format, scope and structure, they succeed because of their clarity of purpose and their commitment to engage their audience.

The winners excel in design — maintaining the highest standards of typography, page design, photography, illustration and color use. While each newspaper has a unique voice, all of them demonstrate passion, intelligence, imagination and rigor.

The judges were: Eduardo Danilo Ruiz, president of Danilo Black, SA de CV in Monterrey, Mexico; John M. Humenik, editor of the Quad-City Times in Davenport, Iowa; Leland F. "Buck" Ryan, associate professor at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Ky.; Sharon Roberts, assistant managing editor, Austin American-Statesman, Texas; and Bonnie Scranton, senior art director of Newsweek magazine in New York, N.Y.

(Also check out SportsDesigner.com, where Rich Boudet has a Q&A with a judge from one of the other categories.)

First up is Die Zeit, a 450,000 circulation weekly in Hamburg. It was also named one of the World's Best-Designed in 1998, 1999, 2001 and 2002. This time the judges said:

A weekly newspaper with refined design and strong typography. Die Zeit invites readers to slow down and explore the many facets of life. Bookish in its design, this paper reflects the country’s history in fine typography and printing through the elegant, yet practical use of art and text. Designers at Die Zeit succeed in the creative use of a strong grid structure, but also know how to break it to seduce the reader.

More pages after the jump.

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There's a bright new newspaper in the world today. 24 SATA (24 hours) debuted in Croatia this morning and is aimed at the "digital-age reader."

It's an 8.5x11-inch "micro tabloid" and is very visually oriented. There are "visual briefs" on every page, it's full of color, and even has a "photos to the editor" page.

Creator Thomas Dobernigg says:

"Our goal was to develop a new generation of newspaper for a new generation of readers. Fast, informative, entertaining and very much interactive through new journalistic elements it wants to catch the interest of people who so far took their information from other media than traditional newspapers. 24 SATA is as compact as an SMS or e-mail, as colorful as the internet and as visual as a reality show on TV."

The chief architect of the design, it may not surprise you to hear, is Mario Garcia, who says:

"We have conceived this newspaper as the ultimate publication for the digital age. We are well aware of the importance of visuals, but now we also know that there is a whole generation of readers who are accustomed to seeing very small photographic images on their mobile phones and digital cameras. So, why not bring those same images to print? This newspaper will have a high-quality printing press that allows it to reproduce color very well, thus enhancing the legibility of small photos."

The typography is all sans-serif, with Interstate for headlines and Poynter Gothic Text for text.

Garcia worked with project leader Hans Gasser; Dobernigg, who is responsible for content development; and Dietmar Wallner, who is responsible for infrastructure and organization. The paper's editor is Matija Babic, 27, who started a very popular Croatian internet portal, Index.hr. The art director, whose magazine design background has influenced the look of the paper, is Branimir Klaric. Garcia worked on the project with his Hamburg-based Garcia Media team, led by Jan Kny as art director and Margit Meister as designer.

The paper will publish seven days a week and will run between 48 and 64 pages. The initial edition will have 300,000 copies printed and distributed nationally across Croatia, a country with a population of 4.4 million. The cover price is set at half that of other Croatian daily newspapers.

24 SATA is owned by Austrian media company Styria Medien AG, which says in a statement on its website that they "started this project with the motivation to offer Croatia a new type of original and independent daily newspaper, representing an attractive alternative to the monotonous and traditional newspaper market." Interestingly, Styria also holds a majority stake in the best-selling Croatian newspaper Vecernji List.

More page images and photos after the jump.

Photos to the editor page





24 SATA Editor Matija Babic and Mario Garcia





Mario Garcia speaking with editors





Garcia with pages

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