Front page design: Some trends continue

Newspaper Research Journal, Summer 2003 by Utt, Sandra H, Pasternack, Steve

16. See, for example, Edgar Shaohua Huang, "Professionalizing online news photo presentations," Visual Communication Quarterly (spring 2003), 4-11.

17. Sandra H. Utt, and Steve Pasternack, "Front pages of U.S. daily newspapers," Journalism Quarterly 61, no.4 (winter 1984), 879-884; Sandra H. Utt, and Steve Pasternack, "How they look: An updated study of American newspaper front pages," Journalism Quarterly 66, no.3, (autumn 1989), 621-627; Steve Pasternack, and Sandra H. Utt, "A study of America's front pages: A 10-year update," (Paper presented at AEJMC, Atlanta, August 1994).

18. Keith Kenney, and Stephen Lacy, "Economic forces behind newspapers' increasing use of color and graphics," Newspaper Research Journal 8, no.3 (1987), 33-41.

19. These data are for the newspaper as a whole, not just the front page.

20. Edward Smith, and Donna Hajash, "Informational graphics in 30 daily newspapers," Journalism Quarterly 65 (1988), 714-718.

21. Sandra H. Utt, Sandra and Steve Pasternack, "Use of graphic devices in a competitive situation: A case study of ten cities," Newspaper Research Journal 7, no.1 (1985), 7-16.

22. Wilson Lowrey, "The influential designer: Explaining variability in control over news presentation work," Visual Communication Quarterly, (winter 2002), 4-13.

23. Xigen Li, "Web page design and graphic use of three U.S. newspapers," Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 75, no.2 (summer 1998), 353-365.

24. Edgar Shaohua Huang, "Professionalizing online news photo presentations," Visual Communication Quarterly (spring 2003), 4-11.

25. Xigen Li, "Web page design affects news retrieval efficiency," Newspaper Research Journal 23, no.1 (winter 2002), 38-51.

26. See for example Wilson Lowrey, "From map to machine: Conceptualizing and designing news on the Internet," Newspaper Research Journal 20, no.4 (fall 1999), 14-27. Lowrey cited a study that found that the flashier web sites scored lowest in their usability.

27. Examples of quotes from papers that have a strong photo editor. "It's great having a designer running the way the front page looks. What a different experience from having a copyeditor making those decisions." And "we love the change in our product-very much 'photo driven' with lots of photo essays."

28. Large newspapers have a daily circulation of 250,000 or more. Small newspapers have a daily circulation of 50,000 or less.

29. A design stylebook is a set of written guidelines that address all design issues-when and how to vary the column width, for example.

30. Totals are more than 100 percent because newspapers will occasionally run several types of content above their flags.

Utt is an associate professor in the Department of Journalism at the University of Memphis. Pasternack is a professor in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at New Mexico State University. They wish to thank Lana Sumpter, a designer at The Commencai Appeal in Memphis and an adjunct instructor at the University of Memphis, for her help.