Category Archives: In Case You Missed It

How Kansas area newspapers covered Turner Gill’s firing as KU football coach

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On Sunday afternoon, acting KU athletic director Sheahon Zenger fired Turner Gill as football coach. Gill had been at the University of Kansas for two years.

This move comes after Saturday’s Border War loss to Missouri, which you can read about on the blog here. The Jayhawks, once a dominant force in Big 12 football, have had a string of losses in the last two seasons. And by “string of losses,” I mean, they’ve only won one Big 12 game.

I saw this firing coming, even before kickoff on Saturday. But hey, at least he’s not the Kansas coach who said, “The majority of Kansas fans don’t give a flip about playing Missouri.” Not that I’m bitter.

Here’s a round-up of newspaper front pages from Newseum.

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THE LAWRENCE JOURNAL-WORLD
Lawrence, Kan.

To read Matt Tait’s story, go here.

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THE KANSAS CITY STAR
Kansas City, Mo.

At the bottom of that package is an info box about potential replacements for Turner Gill:

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THE TOPEKA CAPITAL-JOURNAL
Topeka, Kan.

The subhed gets at a point that the others didn’t: Gill only had one Big 12 win in two seasons. One. It was against Colorado in 2010.

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STRIPPED SKYBOXES

Several Kansas papers stripped the story in skyboxes. Hutchinson gave the all the skybox space to the story, whereas Wichita and Garden City split the space among a few stories.

 

THE HUTCHINSON NEWS
Hutchinson, Kan.

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THE WICHITA EAGLE
Wichita, Kan.

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THE GARDEN CITY TELEGRAM
Garden City, Kan.

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Overall, I was surprised that it was not a bigger story, though this was no surprise. This season has been appalling, especially when you consider that these guys were once considered pretty good. For the fans, this can — and should — be good news.

Ya know, if you give a flip about playing Kansas.

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Coverage of Missouri/Kansas Border War and Mizzou’s SEC move

 

 

 

 

Coverage of Missouri/Kansas Border War and Mizzou’s SEC move

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College Football just finished its annual Rivalry Week, that great week when college sports fans most resemble WWF fans in their rabid hatred for the other guy, whomever the other guy might be.

For Missouri and Kansas fans, this rivalry goes way back and runs deep. The University of Missouri first played the University of Kansas in 1891, making it the second oldest rivalry in college football, and the oldest west of the Mississippi River.

The Associated Press wrote a few weeks ago:

The rancor is understandable. The rivalry predates college sports to a time when pro-slavery forces in Missouri battled free-state Kansans 150 years ago. Missouri fans have been known to invoke William Quantrill, a Confederate guerrilla leader whose Civil War assault on Lawrence in 1863 killed nearly 200 civilians and burned down most of the town. The series was officially known as the Border War before it was changed to Border Showdown several years ago when the country was fighting in two wars.

The Quantrill thing is serious. There are T-shirts featuring depictions of that massacre:

Courtesy of CollegeFootballResource.com

So, you see why the word “rancor” was aptly used in the AP article, right?

This year’s game, which was the 120th meeting of the two teams, took on even more importance after the University of Missouri announced it was leaving the Big 12 to join the SEC, effective July of 2012. Coaches and officials at the University of Kansas have said Kansas will not play Missouri out of conference. KU basketball coach Bill Self even said, “The majority of Kansas fans don’t give a flip about playing Missouri.”

So, I was kind of surprised to find minimal references to the Border War game when perusing Newseum in the last week. I wasn’t expecting big centerpieces, as it’s had to contend with Thanksgiving, Black Friday, the Super Committee and other news, but I was expecting at least a skybox here or there.

Today’s front pages didn’t have as much Border War coverage as I would have expected.

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THE COLUMBIA MISSOURIAN
Columbia, Mo.

The deck explains that “UNDENIABLY AHEAD” headline:

Before Saturday, there was an argument over whether MU had the most wins in the Border Showdown’s history. Now, there’s no question.

Which is a polite way of saying what many Mizzou fans have been saying with their middle fingers for years.

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THE LAWRENCE JOURNAL-WORLD
Lawrence, Kan.

The Jayhawks’ hometown paper played the game up top in bigger-than-normal skybox with the nameplate.

That subhed says it pretty well: “Jayhawks blow early lead in last Big 12 game against Tigers.” As a buddy said at The Boston ‘Zou watch party, “When did Kansas become the ’85 Bears?”

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THE ST. JOSEPH NEWS-PRESS
St. Joseph, Mo.

The St. Joseph paper doesn’t mention yesterday’s game, but instead has a piece describing fan reaction to Mizzou’s move the SEC.

Most interesting, though, is the info box giving “A little history”:

The University of Missouri was a founding member of the league that would someday become the Big 8 and later the Big 12 Conference. Kansas, Nebraska and Washington University in St. Louis formed the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1907. Teams were added, and teams left in the next few years including the exit of Washington University. A league recognizable as the Big 8 formed in 1958 and the MVIAA officially changed its name the following year. Four Texas schools were added in 1996 to form the Big 12. With Nebraska recently leaving the league and Missouri leaving after this year, the only original member of the Big 12 will be Kansas.

There was a lot in there that I didn’t know.

When the announcement was made, one of the Columbia papers covered the hell out of it, especially in graphics…

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THE COLUMBIA MISSOURIAN
Columbia, Mo.

The Missourian had several graphics about the move to the SEC, including some maps by Rachel Rice explaining how Missouri fits into the new conference. She touched upon something many of us have been saying: “But we’re not in the South!”

To see the rest of Rachel’s maps of Missouri’s new role in the SEC, go here. To see how Missouri stacks up academically against the SEC schools, go here.

I’ll be interested to see more coverage once we’re actually playing in the SEC, without Texas.

And without Kansas.

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4 reasons why Adobe Flash was not a waste of our time

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Last week, Adobe Systems announced it would stop making Flash technology for mobile devices and would instead focus on HTML5.

Flash’s end has been predicted for the last few years now, as it is not supported on the iPhone or the iPad. Flash runs on other mobile devices, but Apple products are the Marcia Brady of their kind. If Apple rejects you, you’re kinda sorta screwed.

4 reasons why Adobe Flash was not a waste of our time

For many graphic artists who joined newsrooms before the big push for “interactive graphics,” Flash was the first program we used to make web graphics with rollovers. We struggled with the differences between frames and keyframes. We learned that changing a movie clip changed every instance of the movie clip. We cheered when we figured those things out, and then were challenged when we transitioned from ActionScript 2.0 to 3.0.

Don’t take that as a complaint. Journalists pride themselves on being problem-solvers whose job is learning new things. With interactive graphics, there was (and still is) always something to learn. Flash, to me, embodies how a lot of people in newsrooms feel: no matter how fast you try to catch up, there’s always something newer to learn.

Earlier this year, I got to attend SND STL. While there, I met a lot of graphic artists who felt frustrated by Flash’s imminent obsolescence. One guy put it best: “I feel like I spent the last three years trying to learn this program, and now that I’m somewhat proficient, it’s useless. I feel like I wasted my time.”

But I don’t think he wasted his time. Here are a few reasons why:

  1. It was a decent gateway for people who had never coded before. Flash allowed you to create things the way you were used to creating them in Illustrator. Using ActionScript, you could make those objects do things. ActionScript won’t work in HTML or JavaScript, but the general concept is the same: you have code that dictates what the package looks like and how the user will interact with it. ActionScript and JavaScript are not the same but they have similar structures. You can’t waltz from one into the other, per se, but knowing one could help you grasp some of the basic concepts.
  2. It forced some people to learn HTML and CSS. When you finished your Flash file, you had to export it as a SWF. To put that on a web page, you still needed to write code that said, “Hey, show this Flash file.” If you had never used HTML before, having to embed your Flash movies might have been your introduction to basic CSS and HTML.
  3. You proved you could adapt. Remember when we all had to switch from FreeHand to Illustrator? Or ActionScript 2.0 to 3.0? There were quirks and growing pains, and you might have complained that you shouldn’t have to learn this stuff. But you did it. So what if Flash is no longer used by many organizations. The take-away is that you have proven that you are willing to invest time to learn whatever the new technologies are. Spin it that way, and your Flash knowledge makes you look like a hard worker who can try new things, rather than some dinosaur.
  4. Understanding the philosophy behind what makes a good interactive graphic is just as important as knowing the specific technology. Page designers who made good pages in Quark figured out how to make good pages in InDesign. The fundamentals of page design didn’t change when we switched from Quark to InDesign. The fundamentals of good information graphics didn’t change when FreeHand was replaced in newsrooms by Illustrator.

The Nieman Journalism Lab had a good piece about how Adobe’s abandonment of Flash will affect the news organizations who used it. If you haven’t seen it, please do.

And then start on your HTML5 tutorials. There are interactive graphics to be made.

Florida Times-Union’s National Coming Out Day coverage

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Today, Oct. 11th, is National Coming Out Day in the U.S. The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, my former paper, featured three vignettes on local people and their coming out stories.

The piece, written by reporter Mary Kelli Palka, begins with this:

Throughout the United States today, people will openly support equality to mark National Coming Out Day. Others will first share that they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. But people don’t just come out one day of the year. They tell people all the time – family members, co-workers, new people they meet. Sometimes they’re met with support and love. Sometimes they’re not.

Here’s how the package started on A1:

And here’s an inset of that package:

Photographer Bruce Lipsky shot that photo of Charlas “Charlee” Dehling, the first person profiled in today’s piece. Dehling has a great quote:

“[Staying in the closet was] fueled by fear of being ridiculed, rejected, passed over, being held back in my ambitions and self-preservation,” she said.

Later, Mary Kelli writes:

Dehling said she’s telling her story not as a rally cry to get others to come out. Instead, it’s a rally cry for normalcy. She just wants to be treated like everyone else, with the same rights as people who are heterosexual.

To read the full piece, go here. To read Florida Times-Union reporter Kate Howard’s piece for Coming Out Day in 2010, go here.

Did your publication do something for Coming Out Day? Feel free to send it. I’ll gladly post it up here.

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If Leonardo da Vinci tinkered the way George Lucas does…

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In the weeks since we’ve learned that George Lucas has tinkered with “Star Wars” yet again, this time for the Blu-ray release, the nerds have been livid.

I realize many of my non-“Star Wars” friends might not be able to appreciate what this means, so I decided to put it in terms you might understand.

I decided to show it terms of what it would be like if Leonardo da Vinci decided to mess with “The Last Supper” after it had been critically acclaimed and beloved for years.

Here we have the original version of “The Last Supper” by Leonardo da Vinci. In our example, this functions as the stand-in for the original “Star Wars” trilogy. In a word, a masterpiece.

If da Vinci did to 'The Last Supper' what George Lucas has done to 'Star Wars'

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In 1997, George Lucas re-released the trilogy with changes. Some of them were CGI changes to certain scenes. They were changes that were so nuanced that you’d have to look at the original and new version side by side to notice the differences. But there were two main changes:

1. In “Star Wars,” when Han Solo encounters Greedo and shoots him, the scene was changed to have Greedo shoot first and have Han fire a defense shot. Before, Han shot and killed him just because he was done with Greedo’s nonsense. But in the new version, it was an act of self defense. This angers the geeks to no end.

2. In “Return of The Jedi,” Lucas added a musical number to the scene in Jabba’s palace. It involves monsters singing and dancing as if it’s a Muppet show. That is what irks me.

So, these changes are akin what it would be like if da Vinci decided he wanted to horizontally flip “The Last Supper” and add in some of the canines from the “Dogs Playing Poker” painting.

If da Vinci did to 'The Last Supper' what George Lucas has done to 'Star Wars'

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Around the time “Stars Wars: Episode III —- Revenge of The Sith” was released, Lucas tweaked with the original trilogy again. This time, he changed the end of “Return of The Jedi” to use imagery of the new Anakin Skywalker, replacing the original footage.

To me, this akin to da Vinci saying, “OK, now I’m going to add Urkel from ‘Family Matters.'”

If da Vinci did to 'The Last Supper' what George Lucas has done to 'Star Wars'

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Then we found out that the Blu-ray versions would have even more changes, which was like adding a PhotoShop filter to something he’d already tinkered with a bunch of times.

If da Vinci did to 'The Last Supper' what George Lucas has done to 'Star Wars'

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And when we learned what those changes would be, it was even worse.

If da Vinci did to 'The Last Supper' what George Lucas has done to 'Star Wars'

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It would be like your mom deciding that your favorite meal she prepared was still not good enough, so he had to change it. She’d add thumbtacks, staples and manure until it was “just right.”

That’s what you’ve done to us, George Lucas. You’ve added manure to our favorite dish.

More great work from The Florida Times-Union, Kyle Bentle

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As I mentioned in Sunday’s post, Florida Times-Union graphic artist Kyle Bentle worked on some illustrations for the 9/11 coverage on Jacksonville.com. He did some great illustrations that appeared in the background of the main page:

Kyle Bentle, Florida Times-Union, 9/11

On Monday, Kyle posted JPGs of how those illustrations ran in the paper.

Here’s a few of those illustrations:

For Matt Soergel’s story about children coming of age since Sept. 11…

Kyle Bentle, Florida Times-Union, 9/11

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For Jeff Brumley’s story about changing perceptions of Muslims…

Kyle Bentle, Florida Times-Union, 9/11

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For Jeremy Cox’s story about patriotism…

Kyle Bentle, Florida Times-Union, 9/11

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These are just some of the illustrations Kyle did for The Florida Times-Union’s 9/11 coverage. To see all of them, including how they played on the overall pages, go here.

To see more of Kyle’s portfolio, go here.

To see more of my pontifications about Kyle Bentle’s awesomeness, go here.

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Great 9/11 work from Jacksonville.com, The Florida-Times Union

Great 9/11 work from Jacksonville.com, The Florida-Times Union

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This week has had a lot of good coverage of the anniversary of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Charles Apple has had updates almost every day, showing some of the fine work newspapers and their websites have done in anticipation of today’s milestone. He wrote about The Boston Globe’s coverage on Wednesday.

My former paper, The Florida Times-Union, has also been busy with its coverage. They’ve done a lot of things, and I won’t mention all of it today, but it’s been good.

What I want to point out is the great web presence for the 9/11 packages. Check out the main page for the Times-Union’s coverage:

Florida Times-Union 9/11 coverage

See those cool illustrations in the background? Those are from Kyle Bentle.

At the bottom is a neat timeline:

Florida Times-Union 9/11 coverage

There’s also a piece called, “The Fallen,” looking at the servicemen, servicewomen and civilian contractors with ties to Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia have died.

Florida Times-Union 9/11 coverage

Tracy Jones and Kate Howard worked on “The Fallen” and the timeline at the bottom. Kate says,

The goal of each: to be as comprehensive as possible about the impact of 9/11 locally, in the context of how our country has changed. Both pieces were part of the larger project we called “Since 9/11,” which included 8 days of stories and a user project asking readers to share their stories. That generated more than a hundred reader-submitted memories.

As you can imagine, this project was no small task. They worked on it off and on for about two months.

Tracy writes:

For the military piece, we tasked ourselves with finding any member of any branch of the military who died since 9/11. Our criteria was they had to be currently enlisted (including reserves). Some died in combat, others in accidents and some suicides, but the last thing we wanted to do was forget anybody.

Gathering the list was a task. Kate and I went to our memorial wall, but found there were errors there. We made many phone calls to families, branches and other sources, and we were able to track down information on all of the soldiers, which turned out to be 108 of them. Finding the photos wasn’t too easy either, because none of the military branches keep the photos on file, we basically had to dig for each one we didn’t have in our system.

To organize all the information, we kept an excel doc, which was later imported into a script that generated the information boxes for each soldier.

The photos are based on a jpeg we created of all the faces. We made one in black and white and also in color so it would change when their faces were clicked on.

Again, I urge you to check out the main page for the Times-Union’s coverage. I’m proud of my friends and former colleagues. If there’s any T-U work I missed, send it my way and I’ll post it.

How to donate beer to the Society for News Design silent auction in STL

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The Society for News Design is collecting items for the SND Foundation silent auction. To learn more about that, check out Things you can donate to the Society for News Design silent auction in STL. One of the things they’re looking for is a golconda of beer. Know a good beer that you can’t get in St. Louis? Ship it to the auction.

They have a good start but need your help by Sept. 10th. So, you’ve got this week, folks.

Here’s what to do:

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1. Identify a microbrew you like

It can be a beer from a micro-brewery down the street, or a place you found on vacation.

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2. Get 6-packs of said beer

Some microbreweries will let you buy 6-packs online.

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3. Send your beer to St. Louis!

Send to:

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Attn: Laura Black, Newsroom

900 N. Tucker Blvd.

St. Louis, MO 63101

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4. Tell your buddies

Talk up your beer donation to your friends when perusing the auction. Tell them it’s made with unicorn tears.

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The Society for News Design is seeking any support from SND members, their publications and friends to provide donations. All money raised goes to supporting the Foundation’s work helping educate and inspire future generations of visual journalists, from research to travel grants and scholarships.

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Things you can donate to the Society for News Design silent auction in STL

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The Society for News Design’s convention and workshop in St. Louis is less than four weeks away. SND is collecting items for the SND Foundation silent auction and looking for any support from SND members, their publications and friends to provide donations. All money raised goes to supporting the Foundation’s work helping educate and inspire future generations of visual journalists, from research to travel grants and scholarships.

They have a good start but need your help by Sept. 10th. So, you’ve got this week, folks.

Here are some things you can donate:

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Micro-brewed beers from all over the world

Send us six-packs of the best micro-brews you know, whether they come from your neck of the woods or someplace else you’ve liked. More information on that here.

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Gift certificates

We’ll take gift cards and certificates to any businesses or services that are nationally available.

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Unique design, crafts, photos, pages, prints or artwork

This, of course, includes historic newspaper pages. Framed, ideally.

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Travel packages

Have a time share? A weekend get-away nearby? Donate it!

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Local flair

Pull together a package of your local favorite items. See if you can beat Steve Dorsey’s “Detroit Hustles Harder” package from last year. If we get a flair package from Salina, Kan., I will donate $100. Even if I don’t win the bid. The onus is on you, Kansans.

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Sports or collectable paraphernalia

We especially love signed work.

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Consulting or creative service time

Looking to get your name “out there”? This could be a good marketing opportunity for you.

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Software or hardware

iPads are always welcome!

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Fred Taylor: A class act to the very end

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Running back Fred Taylor, who played 11 seasons for the Jacksonville Jaguars and two years with the New England Patriots, is retiring today. From The Boston Globe:

Today, Fred Taylor will sign a ceremonial one-day contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars, the team which drafted him eighth overall in 1998, and then he will announce his retirement from the NFL after 13 seasons and 11,695 yards, which is 15th most all-time.

I feel a special connection to Fred Taylor. Not just because he played for the Jaguars when I worked in Jacksonville, or because he also left Jacksonville to come to Boston. But because I met the man, and he was really humble and earnest.

Four years ago, Taylor joined an elite group of players who’ve rushed at least 10,000 yards. At the time, he was one of only two active players in that list of 20 players.

Not too shabby, Fred.

As that milestone was coming, the staff at The Florida Times-Union began thinking of how to cover it. AME for Visuals Denise M. Reagan and I talked with Sports Editor Chet Fussman and assistant sports editor Justin Hathaway about potential graphics. The more we talked, the more ideas we had.

I had remembered a Columbia Missourian graphic that converted Brad Smith’s stats into distance across Columbia. I liked that because I can find sports statistics kind of abstract. I wanted to put it in perspective for casual fans such as myself. We could have simply converted it to miles, but I thought showing it to readers in the context of their city had greater impact. I made it lighter and more whimsical to indicate this wasn’t a traditional map.

Click for a larger version:

Florida Times-Union infographic about Jacksonville Jaguar Fred Taylor Patrick Garvin

Meanwhile, we knew we wanted to do something awesome for when he finally reached 10,000 yards. Whenever that fateful game happened, we wanted a breakdown of his career ready. In the preseason, we pulled statistics and started organizing our pieces. We decided I would do a full-page, season-by-season, game-by-game chart of every yard he’d rushed in his career, color-coding the games in which he rushed 100 yards or more.

Click for a larger version:

Florida Times-Union infographic about Jacksonville Jaguar Fred Taylor Patrick Garvin

After it ran in the paper, we printed a version we could frame and give to Taylor. We went to the locker room and presented it to him. Charles Apple did a Q&A on that.

He was not what I expected a pro athlete to be. There was no cocky bravado or sense of entitlement. He was extremely gentle and humbled by his accomplishment. Other reporters have said he’s extremely friendly and down to earth.

Fred Taylor, to me, epitomizes the best of Jacksonville. He’s not the star of the team or the flashiest player, but he worked hard and did his best, despite injuries and age. He stuck with it, and when it came time to retire, he decided to do it with class.

The symbolism of signing a one-day contract with the Jaguars means a lot to fans. In the four and a half years I lived in Jacksonville, there were often fears that the team would move to another market, presumably Los Angeles. Taylor’s return to the team lets them know they are important and not forgotten, which goes a long way in Jacksonville.

To read Times-Union reporter Tania Ganguli’s piece on Fred Taylor’s retirement, go here.