For many Americans, routines have changed since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. For the Free Press, the attacks have meant a change in how we organize and design the newspaper.
“This could well be the biggest story of our lives,” said Free Press Publisher Heath J Meriwether. “We wanted to provide our readers with all the information they needed to comprehend it, to help in whatever way they could, and talk among their families, friends and community groups.”
Two innovative and useful ideas were developed to help people get through the newspaper and make sense of all the news.
- The One-Minute Briefing was designed to give readers a synopsis of the previous day’s news developments and, in question-and-answer format, address questions they might have. The briefing also includes contact and how-to-help information on charities, airlines and memorial services.
- Primers have been included on various subjects, including Arab Americans, Islam, Afghanistan, and U.S. options in fighting terrorism. These are short articles and graphics that allow readers to quickly access and understand information. The information in the primer on Arab Americans came from a Free Press publication, “100 Questions and Answers About Arab Americans.”
The guide, which has gotten more than 100,000 page views on the Free Press Web site, www.freep.com has information on language, religion, customs, demographics and stereotypes. It was intended to be a journalists’ guide.
Another noticeable change in the newspaper since the terrorist attacks is in the way we use front-page photographs. Nearly every day, the Free Press has used one dominant photo that editors thought visually captured a compelling element of the unfolding stories.
“Each day, we try to find that singular image that serves as the iconic image of the day,” said Director of Photography Nancy Andrews. “Sometimes it’s been the exact same topic as our main headline. Sometimes, as with the pilot’s funeral (on Sept. 18), the photograph has complemented the other coverage on the page, but not mirrored it.”
Editors also worked to theme and label coverage as much as possible to help readers sort through the volume of information. That included using keywords in red on the front page to quickly tell readers about the latest developments and where to find those stories inside.
Those ideas, along with the informational graphics in the newspaper, give readers a fresh approach to the news, said Steve Dorsey, design and graphics director.
“We strove to give readers a fresh perspective on the news — interpretation and analysis of the data beyond the images TV and photos were able to provide,” Dorsey said.
Added Meriwether: “The result has been newspapers full of news, history and emotion, the very stuff of great newspapering, as we try to fulfill our role in society, in America.”
