Go Heels!
Doing justice to a big news story that happens in between edition deadlines is an exciting ride. UNC's battle for the national basketball title was just such a rocket ship. Like Roy Williams, we had a game plan, too: the staff was ready, the pages in hand. All we needed was, well, the game, a score, and a half a dozen stories and photos.
We wouldn't get any of that until after 11:30 p.m. Monday Not a lot of time. Here's a piece of what the discussion on the front page sounded like. (Sports has a whole bunch of other issues!):
At 5:15 p.m., several editors crowded around designer Nathan Stack's computer screen debating how today's front page should look. The game would be the main story on the page, but how big? Four columns across the top of the page, or five? Or six? Can we shoot a photo specifically to fit the space? How quickly can we get it? Say the game is over at 11:30 p.m., the photographer needs time to shoot a celebration and send the photo back. It needs to be edited and the designer needs to get it onto the page. A writer needs to give us some copy. Can we make our first edition?
We publish three editions per night and because of the late results, we don't have time to remake the entire front page between editions and still get it to you in the early morning. We can switch out a photo and a story or two, but the design needs to remain roughly the same throughout all three editions. We decided early on that we were not going to be able to get the results in for the first edition. For that edition, the viewing of the pope dominated our front page. that would change for the later editions, but how?
Photo director Rob Brown argued passionately for a six-column game spread. It's the biggest news story in North Carolina so let's play it that way, he said. Is it as big as the pope's passing which we had played across the top half of the front page and then some, someone asked? To a lot of our readers, it is, he replied. Give our photographer there, Scott Hoffmann, room to shoot. Don't lock him into a specific photo size.
On the other hand, it is just a basketball game. An important game, but a game nonetheless. If it is played across all six columns on the front page, what happens when you get a bigger story? Where is the perspective? You can't go bigger than six columns.
In the end, managing editor Ann Morris decided to play the story five columns wide from the top to the bottom of the page. We knew that some readers wanted other news, and we had a strong local news story that deserved to be above the fold. Meanwhile, we were confident that Scott would get the shot we wanted, which was a photo of celebration, not game action. With nearly 30 years of experience as a photographer, he could pull it off. (And he did. He sent us the joyous A1 photo of Jawad Williams amid the colored streamers at about 12:10 a.m. It captured the mood perfectly.)
Our desk editors brainstormed headlines most of the evening, but the one selected, "Triumphant," was proposed early in the day and sticked.
Was it right? You decide. Here is a link to some other newspaper front pages. Both Raleigh and Charlotte used all six columns. Winston used three-and-a-half. (St. Louis, where the game was played, had a photograph of Sean May in four columns.)
We expect to get some calls and letters reminding us that we have a Sports section for these types of stories. We also expect some calls and letters accusing us of a Carolina blue bias. Was our coverage too much? Not to me. (On Sunday, one Michigan newspaper stripped Michigan State's loss above the pope's death.)
We're going to have more coverage in Wednesday's paper, and we're proceding with a 22-page special section on the national championship season that will come out Friday.
Too many people did good work last night -- including the sportswriters, their editors and designers -- to name them here. We hope you like it.
Comments (3)
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John...
Once again you proved that you folks are unwilling to hold the presses for ANYTHING.
So.. you run a 4 inch headline that says something like "IT DOESN'T MATTER WHO WON BECAUSE WE MUST GO TO PRESS AT 11PM, AND WE HATE TO PAY OVERTIME!"
For the record, UNC, Wake, State and Duke are pretty much local teams. And this NCAA National Championship is a big deal for many of your readers.
Just so you know.
Posted on April 5, 2005 5:45 PM
Oh, we're not afraid to pay overtime. I assure we do plenty of that. I'm not sure what you mean by a four-inch headline. I can tell you that had we held our first edition for the 30 to 45 minutes it would have taken to get a decent basketball report in, the next two editions would have backed up and each would have made us later and later. The bulk of our readership wouldn't have gotten their newspapers until after they left for work.
We don't like it, but we haven't figured out how to get it done any other way. We're not alone; the other big papers in the state did the same thing we did. Sorry about that.
Posted on April 5, 2005 8:54 PM
Having answered phone calls from people who didn't get their papers on time in the morning, I'd say John's absolutely right. Blame the NCAA for playing this thing so late.
Of course, the N&R would've held it if Duke had won, right?
Posted on April 8, 2005 2:46 PM