The long-awaited Berliner-format Lafayette (Ind.) Journal and Courier (Gannett, 36,000) has hit the streets. It’s the first North American daily to switch to the Berliner format, which in this case is 12” by 18.5”, and if it’s a success, it may not be the last. E&P notes:

When the conversion was announced last year, Mark S. Mikolajczyk, then Gannett’s senior vice president of operations (and now publisher of its Florida Today, in Melbourne), called Lafayette “a prototype site” to serve as a test bed for the Berliner format.

Much coverage at the J&C site, including a blog, a reader’s guide (7-page PDF), a Q&A, photos and video.

Update: Somehow this slipped my brain, but I've been reminded that Lafayette isn't the first American Berliner. The Columbia Missourian converted its Sunday paper to Berliner in 2004.

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Ido Kenan at Room 404 notes that the new, two-month-old design of the Israeli newspaper Hazofe looks a tad, well, familiar.

(Thanks, Mark!)

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A Charlotte Observer photographer, Patrick Schneider, was fired Thursday for altering the color in the lead photo [larger version] of the Local section.

In the original photo, the sky in the photo was brownish-gray. Enhanced with photo-editing software, the sky became a deep red and the sun took on a more distinct halo.

The Observer’s photo policy states: “No colors will be altered from the original scene photographed.”

Schneider said he did not intend to mislead readers, only to restore the actual color of the sky. He said the color was lost when he underexposed the photo to offset the glare of the sun.

This wasn’t Schneider’s first offense. He was reprimanded and suspended in 2003 because “he had inappropriately increased the intensity of colors and darkened backgrounds of several photos.”

Update: Here's the Observer staff memo from yesterday:

From: Burkins, Glenn
Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2006 10:15 PM
To: @Newsroom
Subject:

From: Rick, Cheryl, Tom, Glenn

We're sad to tell you that photojournalist Patrick Schneider is no longer with The Observer. We will announce this in a note to readers in Friday's paper. Patrick violated our policy about altering the color in a photograph that was on the Local front in Thursday's newspaper. He was involved in a previous incident with altering color in photographs, which the Observer told our readers about in 2003.

Those of you who have worked with Patrick know he is an extraordinary photojournalist who won tons of awards and was willing to drive into hurricanes and jump on a plane on a moment's notice. He won accolades for his work at the Olympics, contributed to Biloxi's Pulitzer entry, showed up at nearly every fire in this city and took some of the most action-packed, dynamic photos for our sports pages. A photo page a couple years ago in which Patrick photographed the hands of several professionals reflected his gifts. He has a talented eye, a love of news and great energy for the work.

This is not an ending any of us wanted. We will miss Patrick's passion for photojournalism.

We must hold fast to the standards we set for ourselves and our profession. Credibility is fragile and precious.

Glenn Burkins
Deputy Managing Editor
The Charlotte Observer

Also, here's a page in defense of Schneider after the 2003 incident. That page also includes before-and-afters of the altered photos, such as this one, which is eerily similar to the Thursday photo:

Here's the Observer page where the above photo ran.

Update2: SportsShooter.com has a thread going on this.

>Observer photo was altered improperly [Charlotte Observer]

(Thanks, Martin!)

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... um, don't do this:

El Nuevo Herald, McClatchy's Spanish-language Miami daily, manipulated two photos, combining them into one, Miami New Times says.

The photo appeared to show two Cuban cops ignoring four prostitutes who were hailing a foreign tourist.

It pushed an anti-Castro agenda in a newspaper advertised by its new owners, McClatchy and Co., as the "most-honored, highest-circulation Spanish-language newspaper in the continental United States."

And, perhaps worse, higherups at El Nuevo overrode the objections of veteran photographer Roberto Koltun, who snapped both pictures several years ago in Cuba (and didn't return a call seeking comment). "Two things were put together," commented photo coordinator Orlando Mellado. "[Koltun] expressed concern about it for that reason and others. He basically didn't want it used."

But they apparently didn't do so good a job of it, the New Times points out:

In the doorway, there is a sharp variation in light between the right and left sides. Note the difference in perspective between the police officers and prostitutes. The police officers cast shadows. The prostitutes don't.

Update: El Nuevo Herald has responded (link in Spanish, here's an online translation), saying the error was "involuntary."

Editor of the Séptimo Día section, Andrés Reynaldo, explains:

"Our intention was to make a photomontage that included photos from several sources. We committed two errors: the graphic treatment did not correspond to that intention exactly, and we did not publish the proper credit," Reynaldo said.

Their defense seems to be that they thought it would be obvious to the reader that they were mashing two photos together.

One piece of evidence that shows the photographic composition was not done with a view to manipulating reality is that in the zone where the two photos are united, between the man with cap and the girl with shorts, a blurry strip can be seen, and there, underneath the hair of the small one, appears a shoe (noticeable with the circle) that corresponds to another man in the other photo, according to the editors. In addition, a close analysis of the photomontage shows that there is no continuity in the line of the sidewalk, added the editors.

They also have a slideshow of the photos in question.

>Listen Up, McClatchy [Miami New Times]

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Following in the footsteps of the New York Times Mother Ship, The Boston Globe will begin selling advertising on the covers of its Business, Sunday Real Estate, Sports, and Food sections.

Ad space on the Business and Real Estate sections will be available Aug. 6, and soon afterward on the fronts of the other sections, [Globe president and general manager Mary] Jacobus said. "The front page of the Globe is not under consideration," Jacobus said, nor is the cover of the City & Region section.

...

The ads in the Business and Real Estate sections would be three-inch-high strips across the bottom of the page, she said. That would be similar in shape and size to the ads recently launched on the business cover of The New York Times, which, like the Globe, is owned by The New York Times Co. The marketing goal is to provide advertisers with high visibility among readers with high interest in that section's content.

Early results for selling ads on the front page of the Times Business section have been encouraging, Catherine J. Mathis, a Times vice president, said in an e-mail.

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Interesting treatment on the front page of The Independent today. It advocates a point of view, to be sure (one might ask where the Hezbollah flag is), but does it in a quick, dramatic way.

(via Kottke)

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Confirming speculation from this spring, The Wall Street Journal will begin running ads on its front page in September, The New York Times is reporting. It will be a square-shaped ad (they're calling it a "jewel box") that will run in the lower right-hand corner of the page, perhaps much like the tabloid overseas editions do. The ad could bring in more than $75,000 a pop.

At Poynter they are, of course, wringing their hands.

“As a traditionalist, I’m not thrilled by the idea,” said Bob Steele, who specializes in ethics and values at the Poynter Institute, which studies journalism. Front pages, he said, should be reserved for what the collective community considers to be news.

“Gannett has changed this equation considerably in the last few years with section-front and front-page ads, and now the Internet has presented a whole new table top,” he said. “The question becomes, how do newspapers protect their journalistic integrity at the same time they develop new revenue streams?”

The question becomes that? Seems to me that's always been the question. One of them, anyway. “Journalistic integrity” comes from how you conduct yourself journalistically, no? Not what page you put your ads on. I’m no fan of the front-page ad either, but I just don’t think that readers view the front page with the same holy reverence that we do.

Incidentally, as previously documented here and elsewhere, the Journal will redesign and introduce a narrower web width early next year.

>Wall Street Journal to Run Ads on Its Front Page [The New York Times]

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In a move it’s been considering for a while, The New York Times will be narrowing its width and launching an “extensive” redesign in 2008. The newspaper will switch to a 48-inch web from the current 54 inches, meaning each page will be 1½ inches narrower. To compensate for the loss of space, editor Bill Keller says they’ll increase the number of pages, edit tighter and use more digests “or other abbreviated forms.” About the design, Keller says:

You cannot just take the current front page and squeeze it. We need to think hard about changing the look in ways that preserve the visual power, the urgency and the dignity of The New York Times. [Design Director] Tom Bodkin is already at work, along with several other senior editors, on a thorough examination of the A-book. He will now look for a redesign that we can execute in two stages — some changes we may introduce earlier, and then a new look to suit the narrower format when the page size changes in 2008.

The Times will also close a printing plant and shed 250 production-related jobs. The changes will save the company about $42 million a year.

Update: Stephen Colbert says: “We did it! That’s an inch and a half less of state secrets revealed every day!” Here’s the video:

>Times to Reduce Page Size and Close a Plant in 2008 [The New York Times]

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Above are the front pages from today’s Kerala Kaumudi in Kerala, and Mid Day, a Mumbai tabloid. Below, some inside pages from Mid Day. Warning: The big photo on that doubletruck is pretty gruesome.

(Thanks to sajeev, Jan and Mario!)

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Here's how some Indian newspapers played Tuesday's train bombings.

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Mi-Ai Parrish, deputy managing editor for features and visuals at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, has been named publisher of the Idaho Statesman.

Parrish, 35, has worked at the Strib since 2001 and previously was the deputy managing editor for arts and features at the San Francisco Chronicle. She's also worked at The Arizona Republic, the Chicago Sun-Times and The Virginian-Pilot.

The previous publisher, Mike Petrak, resigned July 8 after 10 months on the job. The Statesman is on its third owner in the last year. On June 27, McClatchy took over the paper as part of its acquisition of Knight-Ridder, which bought the Statesman from Gannett in August 2005.

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I’m not one for rattling the cup around here, but my quads and I are riding in the LiveStrong Challenge benefit ride later this month. So if you’d like to toss a few coins in for a good cause, that’d be most excellent. Thanks!

The azzurri did it! Here’s the thrill and the agony as reflected on the front pages of Italy and France.

Update: Paco at Maquetadores has posted a bunch more pages from all over the world, and sajeev kumar t.k, front page editor of Kerala Kaumudi in Kerala, India, has posted some of his paper's pages.

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The management apologizes for the radio silence. Those responsible have been sacked. Well, not sacked so much as forced to come back from vacationing in the Sierra Nevadas. Fresh content is forthcoming.

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