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The Taunton Daily Gazette front page that declares the Boston Bruins as champions for winning the 2011 Stanley Cup has been named front page of the month for June 2011.
Jon Root, managing editor for the Gazette as well as The Herald News, answered a handful of questions about this fantastic page:
Who was involved in the planning and execution of the page and how far in advance did the discussions begin?
Involved: Editor in Chief Lisa Strattan, City Editor Rory Schuler, A1 editor Leeanne Hubbard, sports editor Steve Sanchez, production director Mike Niland and me. Planning for this package began the morning after the Bruins won Game 6, giving us two working days to conceive and execute our coverage plans for A1, the sports cover and the wrap.
The key point in the planning process came when Mike Niland said his press crew could print a live celebratory wrap if the Bruins won -- no small feat, considering his crew would have to print two different wraps (the Gazette and The Herald News print on the same press, back-to-back) and insert the papers live. Usually wraps are printed days in advance.
After we were granted that option, Lisa and I devised the game plans for both papers, I designed the wrap and A1 setups, Rory reviewed the A1 plans with his night crew, I reviewed the wrap plans with Leeanne, and Steve handled the sports cover production.
The A1 wrap was designed during the day on game day, well before the start of the game. I also designed A1 setups during the day, for win/lose and horiz/vert photo options. Headline ideas were left on the pasteboards.
From the player names framing the page, the logo and the champion banner, there is a good amount of detail on this page. At what point in the planning process did these elements enter the discussion and why?
A year ago, lol. Thanks to the success of our professional sports teams here in Massachusetts, we've gained a lot of experience in devising and executing celebratory front pages and wraps. Last year, prior to Games 6 and 7 of the Celtics-Lakers NBA Finals matchup, I designed some full-page "Celtics win title" cover treatments for the Gazette and Herald News. They were pretty cool ... but they never saw the light of day! Damn you Ron Artest!
But I held onto the page and general ideas, and when the Bruins won Game 6, I decided to give it another go.
These elements entered the discussion early in the planning process. I wanted to design the entire wrap so that all the A1 editor would have to do on deadline was choose a photo, write the headline and subhed, plop in the score and blammo! Hit print.
For the border of player names: I was looking for a way to frame the poster, without using rules. Using the names in Bruins yellow gives it a faint border feel, while at the same time memorializing the players who clinched the cup.
The ttile banner at the bottom was born out of necessity. That crummy barcode has to live on the frontmost page for store purchases. So the banner helps keep the fields modular. And it's another way to help memorialize the occasion and its importance.
What can you tell us about a Plan B scenario if Boston would have lost?
Plan B essentially was kill the wrap. That's it. The space devoted to Game 7 would have been the same for A1 and the sports cover, win or lose.
Without a wrap, planning for a huge "cover" production if a team wins a title can require a ton of planning. If a team wins, you want to play it much bigger on a cover than if the team loses. This means holding or bumping stories inside the paper to make room if they win, which can affect jump page content, too.
But the beauty of the wrap was, if they won, our "cover" was all Bruins. If they lost, the "cover" was now only mostly Bruins. The A1 coverage took up the same space either way, and the planning was simplified.
What on this page was designed ahead of time and what was done on deadline and why?
Everything on this page was designed ahead of time. We knew that the press room was going to be under the gun to get these wraps and printed ASAP, so we needed to come up with a wrap that could print ASAP, followed closely thereafter by the regular papers. Also, the task of finishing the wrap was left to the A1 editor, so I wanted to leave as little work in her hands as possible on deadline so she could still oversee the regular paper.
What advice do you have for other newsrooms may be considering a poster page?
First, planning wise, check with your production manager and press people to see what they're capable of on deadline. Know what sort of deadline and printing parameters you have to work with. How long after the game is over can you wait for that killer photo and still make deadline? Or do you have to go with a game shot? How many color plates can hold until how long? How many black plates?
Design-wise, when I design these types of pages, I try to envision them hung up in local bars, garages, kids' bedrooms, etc. It's a different effect you're trying to achieve -- to memorialize, instead of inform. A big photo and a giant headline are the centerpieces and starting points for what happens to the rest of the page. One route is to make the photo the size of the page, and superimpose the headline and flag. If you go the whitespace route, try to find tidbits of info that help make it unique to that particular event and that months, maybe even years from now, fans will enjoy referencing and reminiscing about.
Great information, Jon, and a great page! Congratulations to you and your folks for producing a fine poster page!
Joe Greco is corporate design director for GateHouse Media.
Contact him at jgreco@gatehousemedia.com.
Missed front page of the day? Find the archive here.
