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Should we hold a weekly planning meeting? Yes. The News & Interactive Division recommends every newspaper conduct a weekly meeting when centerpieces for the next week are planned. This kind of meeting should be conducted for every section of a newspaper.
What are centerpieces? Centerpieces are defined as the main featured photo and story in the middle of your front page or section front. The centerpiece is not necessarily the top news story in your paper on most days.
How far in advance should we plan our centerpieces? Newspapers should know what their centerpiece is at least seven days in advance. To accomplish this goal, your centerpiece should be issue-oriented or a billboard to other content in your newspaper. For example, instead of making your centerpiece day-old news, use it to examine issues that your local government is debating or considering, topics that impact the quality of life of your readers. This kind of content is easy to find. Follow-ups from council meetings turn into great centerpieces when you explain to readers the impact of a story or talk to residents about what the decision means for them. Sports content can often find a place in your centerpiece, for a big Friday night high school football game, playoff contest or the kickoff of Little League baseball. It’s OK to put events in your centerpiece, but they should offer unique content teasers to the Web and be more than a standalone photo. They should be packages and not just regurgitated old news or a single photo of an event with no Web elements. Remember, centerpieces are a chance to display a strong visual element as main art. The main art for a horizontal centerpiece should be four columns, and a vertical centerpiece should be three columns.
Does this mean that breaking news can’t be our centerpiece? No. If big news breaks, make it your centerpiece – especially if you have a strong main photo or several elements you can tease to inside your paper and on the Web – and ship your planned centerpiece inside the paper or move it to another day. Planning centerpieces provides your newspaper with a safety net.
Are there mandatory elements every centerpiece should have? Yes. Centerpieces need a headline, subhead, story, strong photo or numerous photos, a breakout box and some kind of online feature.
How should we plan the centerpieces? Based on the number of people in your newsroom, have each staff member handle a specific number of centerpieces each week. During a planning meeting, have each staff member bring a certain number of ideas to the table and use the below planner as a tool to help plan the centerpieces. Keep this document in your system and update it each week as stories change.
• Your newspaper centerpiece planner
For week of Monday, July 6, to Sunday, July 12
FOR XXXDAY, XXXXX, X
Reporter:
Headline:
Nut graph:
Art [photos, illustration, map]:
Breakout boxes [who wins-who loses, what's at stake, what happens next, key players, key issues, for more information, timeline, bio box, excerpt, glossary, Q&A, reader quiz, quote-a-rama, where to go]:
Web element [poll, photo gallery, video, photo or story callout]:
Deadline for story:
Deadline for art:
Notes:
Notables:
Repeat for each day of the week.
Should we hold a weekly planning meeting? Yes. The News & Interactive Division recommends every newspaper conduct a weekly meeting when centerpieces for the next week are planned. This kind of meeting should be conducted for every section of a newspaper.
What are centerpieces? Centerpieces are defined as the main featured photo and story in the middle of your front page or section front. The centerpiece is not necessarily the top news story in your paper on most days.
How far in advance should we plan our centerpieces? Newspapers should know what their centerpiece is at least seven days in advance. To accomplish this goal, your centerpiece should be issue-oriented or a billboard to other content in your newspaper. For example, instead of making your centerpiece day-old news, use it to examine issues that your local government is debating or considering, topics that impact the quality of life of your readers. This kind of content is easy to find. Follow-ups from council meetings turn into great centerpieces when you explain to readers the impact of a story or talk to residents about what the decision means for them. Sports content can often find a place in your centerpiece, for a big Friday night high school football game, playoff contest or the kickoff of Little League baseball. It’s OK to put events in your centerpiece, but they should offer unique content teasers to the Web and be more than a standalone photo. They should be packages and not just regurgitated old news or a single photo of an event with no Web elements. Remember, centerpieces are a chance to display a strong visual element as main art. The main art for a horizontal centerpiece should be four columns, and a vertical centerpiece should be three columns.
Does this mean that breaking news can’t be our centerpiece? No. If big news breaks, make it your centerpiece – especially if you have a strong main photo or several elements you can tease to inside your paper and on the Web – and ship your planned centerpiece inside the paper or move it to another day. Planning centerpieces provides your newspaper with a safety net.
Are there mandatory elements every centerpiece should have? Yes. Centerpieces need a headline, subhead, story, strong photo or numerous photos, a breakout box and some kind of online feature.
How should we plan the centerpieces? Based on the number of people in your newsroom, have each staff member handle a specific number of centerpieces each week. During a planning meeting, have each staff member bring a certain number of ideas to the table and use the below planner as a tool to help plan the centerpieces. Keep this document in your system and update it each week as stories change.
• Your newspaper centerpiece planner
For week of Monday, July 6, to Sunday, July 12
FOR XXXDAY, XXXXX, X
Reporter:
Headline:
Nut graph:
Art [photos, illustration, map]:
Breakout boxes [who wins-who loses, what's at stake, what happens next, key players, key issues, for more information, timeline, bio box, excerpt, glossary, Q&A, reader quiz, quote-a-rama, where to go]:
Web element [poll, photo gallery, video, photo or story callout]:
Deadline for story:
Deadline for art:
Notes:
Notables:
Repeat for each day of the week.
