Take a look at the great ASF centerpiece that appeared last week in the Waynesville Daily Guide, a small daily in southeast Missouri. The story hinges on National Pollinators Week — yes, a whole week is given to those black and yellow stingers! I caught up with Editor DawnDee Bostwick to find out how it came together.

NAME DawnDee Bostwick
TITLE Editor
TIME IN POSITION Seven months
NEWSROOM STAFF SIZE Two (including myself); One sports person

  
Q What was involved in the planning of this package and how long did it take?
A First and foremost was coming up with an idea that was fun and different, but doable in a short amount of time. I came up with an idea for a story about honey bees and how they impact our local economy in rural Missouri. After that, the planning process was simple. I used Gatehouse's Story Planner to decide which elements would work best for the project. It took less than an hour.

Q Who took part in the gathering of the content and design of the package.
A Just me.  

Q How did the reporting and photo assignments come together based on the planning? What difficulties did you encounter?
A It was easier to focus the story after going through the planning process. I knew exactly what elements I needed, keeping me from wasting time getting stuff I wouldn't or couldn't use. It was a challenge to get everything on short deadline. I basically had two days to pull the package together, while completing the other tasks I do on a daily basis. We also had a fatality fire during that time period, our first case of the swine flu and a large court decision which took away time I had scheduled to work on the package.  

Q Were the pages difficult to produce and/or design? If so, what would make it easier?
A It did take some time to modify the template. Adding a few more items to my library (ie. a 3-deck headline box, which I hadn't used before) would make the process faster.

Q What would you do differently next time when planning an ASF centerpiece?
A Plan ahead a few more days to allow some "breathing" room. The best part about the news is often the one thing that can really throw a day out of whack, no matter how carefully you've planned— you never know what the day will bring. 

Joe Greco is corporate design director for GateHouse Media.
Have a question, comment or idea for his blog?
Contact him at jgreco@gatehousemedia.com.