Abstract
The digital revolution has ushered in a new era of front page design, with newspapers of all sizes embracing navigation tools and promotions. This study updates the work of Pasternack and Utt examining newspaper design trends in 1984 and 1995. This study examines the state of current front page design. Furthermore, it explores the use of design hubs and their effect on page design in newspaper chains.
I nfographics and data visualizations. Conceptual art. Illustrations. Even negative space. Today’s newspapers share more with magazines and the Internet than with their inky ancestors. Newspaper design has evolved from the function of fitting content onto a page into a strategic process geared toward engaging online-oriented audiences with an offline product. With the printed newspaper’s popularity declining, design has been viewed as a tool to make print competitive in the crowded marketplace. The Newspaper Association of America reports print circulation has been in a steady decline since 2000. 1 However, newspaper content readership remains high, with 164 million consuming newspaper content in a typical week. 2
This study updates the work Utt and Pasternack (1984) and Pasternack and Utt (1995), who initially studied trends in newspaper design and updated that research. This study, like its predecessors, seeks to explain how newspaper front pages look. Because some newspaper chains, such as Gannett, Tribune and Hearst, 3 have embraced design hubs, where multiple newspapers are designed at a single, distant site, this study seeks to examine the effect of these hubs on design in these chains.
Literature Review
Initial research about newspaper design primarily addressed the impact of electronic pagination and the arrival of USA Today. That newspaper’s 1982 launch had introduced more widespread use of color, and newspapers were beginning to embrace design as a means of communication. At that point, previous research found newspapers embraced horizontal design 4 and used design tools similarly, regardless of circulation size. 5 Furthermore, as newspapers adopted electronic layout, Everett and Everett argued designers should embrace large differentials in type size to indicate importance. 6 In a comparison of traditional and modern style newspapers, Lester found little difference in the content of images but that USA Today and similarly designed newspapers use more photos on the front page to promote inside stories than do traditional newspapers. 7
In their first study, Utt and Pasternack termed newspaper design the “third element of success” (p. 879) for newspapers, in addition to getting news first and right. 8 They found 85.5 percent of daily newspapers used a six-column layout, and the mean story count for front pages was 5.74. Most newspapers (66.7 percent) featured two photographs on the front page, with 96.2 percent using a dominant photograph. Larger dailies (circulation of more than 50,000) used process color less often than smaller newspapers. Nearly all newspapers had an index (93.5 percent), with 34.5 percent publishing a digest of news in the paper. In a five-year update, Utt and Pasternack found strong adoption of color and several photographs on page one. 9
Utt and Pasternack also observed trends regarding use of graphic devices in competing metropolitan newspapers; they found papers tended to be similarly designed, despite competition for readers. 10 Using the same data, Pasternack and Utt found college students associate traditional newspaper design with hard news. 11
Use of infographics typified modern newspaper design, and scholars worked to understand their appeal to readers. Smith and Hajash found that while USA Today consistently used about 1.3 infographics per page, other newspapers use one for about 17 pages. 12 Pasternack and Utt found people enjoyed reading infographics, and that they engaged them with an expectation of gaining easy-to-consume information. 13 Graphics have become a consistently used storytelling tool, and editors made space in crowded newspapers for graphics. 14 In their 2000 update, Utt and Pasternack found newspapers were using “fewer but better” infographics. 15
Utt and Pasternack’s 10-year update found the industry trending toward modern design. 16 Newspapers embraced color photography, color graphics and modular layout at nearly 100 percent. Again, most newspapers (79.7 percent) began five or six stories on the front page, and 70.2 percent jumped at least half the front page stories.
Lowery found a relationship with circulation size and quality design, and newspapers in competitive environments tend to embrace graphics better than those that do not compete. 17 Meanwhile, Cooke found newspaper design, as well as television presentation, took on a scannable quality with the rise of the Internet. 18
In a case study of the South China Morning Post’s redesign, de Vries found newspaper redesigns should prompt a cultural change in the newsroom, where reporters and editors together think about visual presentation. 19 de Vries argued page designs should reflect local cultures and styles. This concept parallels Meyer’s idea that newspapers must become a part of the community, and reflect community styles, issues and routines, to be successful in the information age. 20
Throughout history, newspaper design has followed modern trends, technology and cultural shifts. 21 Boczkowski similarly found newspapers in Brazil succeeded in reflecting local cultures, while homogenized American newspapers struggled. 22 The need for newspapers to reflect local culture also has caught editors’ attention. The El Paso (Texas) Times launched a redesign in 2003 that changed the paper’s focus dramatically, creating more colorful pages to appeal to their Latino readers, and grew its circulation. 23
Competition, scanability and culture typify modern design questions for newspapers. As newspaper chains gravitate toward centralized design, the visual voice in newsrooms is physically absent. In the centralized, or hub, design model, multiple newspapers are designed at a central, distant location. 24 For example, Gannett’s facility in Louisville, Kentucky, designs all pages for newspapers in Louisville; Greenville, South Carolina; Asheville, North Carolina; Lansing, Michigan and about 10 others. Some content might be repurposed from newspaper to newspaper, and some might be unique to a single newspaper. However, all design work is completed at this central site. Before the age of hub design, Lowery observed subgroups of visual journalists and textual journalists often did not have an open dialogue for decision making, and thus affected the presentation of news coverage. 25 Roberts’ examination of QR codes in newspapers notes the difficulties of groupthink associated with centralized design: if an organization buys into a weak idea, that weakness is rapidly spread; conversely, the opposite could be true for strong ideas. 26
Ultimately, the previous research discussed here leads this study to ask two research questions:
RQ1:
What are the graphic and design characteristics of daily newspapers’ front pages with respect to overall design, typeface, color, photography, navigation and informational graphics?
RQ2:
How has the centralization of page design affected front pages in newspaper chains?
Method
Sampling
U.S. newspaper front pages (n = 453) from Sunday, March 9, 2014, were downloaded from the Newseum. Sunday was selected because newspapers printing only certain days of the week print a Sunday edition.
Coding
Two trained graduate students counted the occurrences and described the styles of several elements of page design, including the nature of usage of dominant art, flag style and placement, and style and placement of page navigation. Coders were given operational definitions of each element with visual examples of typefaces, alignments, flag styles and so on, drawn from Harrower’s Newspaper Designer’s Handbook. 27 For dominant art and lead headline, coders were given guidelines and asked to select what they thought was dominant or lead, based on size (larger than everything else on the page).
Reliability
Two coders both examined 66 newspapers for a reliability test. Mean agreement based on Krippendorff’s Alpha 28 was 0.88, with an average of 93.92 percent agreement, calculated by web-based intercoder reliability application ReCal2. 29
Results
RQ1 asked what are the graphic and design characteristics of daily newspapers’ front pages with respect to overall design, typeface selection, color, photography, page navigation and informational graphics. Table 1 shows some key comparisons from previous research and the present study.
Comparison of Key Attributes
Format
The majority of newspapers (435, 96.0 percent) used broadsheet size. Tabloid (14, 3.1 percent), Berliner (1, 0.2 percent) and 3V (3, 0.7 percent) accounted for the remaining newspaper formats. The 3V, also known as 3-around, has been embraced by a few newspapers, and more are converting to the format. 30 The 3V size, 14.75″ tall by 10.5″ wide, allows newspapers to be printed in sections, but fit in a compact size, similar to a tabloid. The format saves on paper costs and allows more options for color production and advertising. 31 Figure 1 shows a side-by-side comparison of the new 3V-sized Columbus Dispatch and the original broadsheet.
The Columbus Dispatch
Columns
Newspapers tend to be designed on five-column (169, 37.3 percent) and six-column (129, 28.5 percent) layouts. Newspapers also used four-column (15, 3.3 percent) and three-column (2, 0.4 percent) layouts. However, 30.5 percent (138) used a grid layout, with no clear column structure.
Story Count and Jumps
Story counts ranged from zero to six. Primarily, newspapers used three-story (198, 43.7 percent) and four-story (128, 28.3 percent) fronts. This number is down from the popular five or six that Pasternack and Utt found in 1995. Now, five or more stories were used only 5.9 percent (27) of the time. Two stories were part of the design 16.1 percent (73) of the time. Single-story counts made up only 2.6 percent of designs (12). Fronts with zero stories primarily were tabloids and accounted for 3.3 percent (15).
Jumps from the front also ranged from zero (17, 3.8 percent) to six (1, 0.2 percent). Three jumps accounted for the 42.4 percent of newspapers (192). Four jumps were used in 25.8 percent (117) of papers, and 19.6 percent (89) used two jumps. Only 4.4 percent (20) of papers jumped five stories to inside pages.
Flags
Newspapers tended to place their flags, also called a nameplate, centered at the top (284, 62.7 percent). Other popular placements included blocked to the left, with “refers” or advertisements to the side (56, 12.4 percent) and left-aligned at the top (48, 10.6 percent). Some newspapers block their flags in the center (38, 8.4 percent). A few put the flag aligned at the top right (14, 3.1 percent) or blocked on the right (13, 2.9 percent).
The majority (289, 63.8 percent) of newspapers use serif type for their flags. Many (132, 29.1 percent) use an old English type flag. A few (32, 7.1 percent) use a sans serif typeface.
Most (277, 61.1 percent) place the flag under promotional copy. Roughly a third (166, 36.6 percent) place their flag at the very top of the page. Placing the flag any other location on the page, such as under a story, occurred 10 times (0.2 percent).
Most (345, 76.2 percent) flags are black type. Color flags were used 53 times for 11.7 percent. Reversed type on a solid color was used 38 times for 8.4 percent. A few (3, 0.7 percent) papers used reverse in black for the flag. Fourteen (3.2 percent) newspapers placed the flag on top of a photo, either in black or reverse type. About a quarter (118, 26.0 percent) use a flag motif, such as a tree or state capitol.
American Flag
The use of the American flag as part of a newspaper front page, which became popular following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, has faded. Only 4.2 percent (19) use an American flag in the paper’s flag, and the remaining three (0.7 percent) placed it in their indexes.
Promos
The majority (240, 53.0 percent) of newspapers placed “promos” above the newspaper’s flag. Seventy-nine papers (17.4 percent) put promos below the flag; 32 went beside the flag (7.1 percent). The remaining 47 (10.3 percent) had multiple locations for promos around the flag. The majority (63.4 percent) of papers used one (139) or two (148) promos. Seventy-eight (7.2 percent) used three promos. A few (33, 7.3 percent) used four or more. Several (55, 12.1 percent) did not use promos.
Navigation
Newspapers generally used a standard index (228, 50.3 percent). A super index, with photos and “refers” to inside stories, was used by 26.5 percent (120) of newspapers. A one-column rail was used by 63 newspapers (13.9 percent). Forty-two (9.3 percent) newspapers had no navigation in their design. Of newspapers with some form of navigation, 61.8 percent (208) placed an index at the bottom of the page layout. The left column placement accounted for 17.9 percent (81) and right column for 6.6 percent (30). The remaining 4.4 percent (92) were placed elsewhere on the page.
Headlines
The traditional lead headline placement at the top right of the page was still popularly used in 85 (18.8 percent) newspapers. However, the most common use of lead headlines was for a centerpiece story placed at the top left (91, 20.1 percent). A top banner headline was used by 84 papers (18.5 percent). Only 8.2 percent of newspapers (37) placed the lead headline at the top left. A lead centerpiece at the top right was used by 31 newspapers (6.8 percent), while a lead centerpiece at the top middle was used by 76 (16.8 percent). Only 9.7 percent (44) did not place their main headline at the top of the page and instead used a centerpiece lead in the middle.
Lead headlines are primarily (287, 63.6 percent) sans serif bold type. Newspapers selected serif bold 144 times (31.9 percent). Regular type was used only 14 times for serif and six times for sans serif for a total of 4.4 percent.
Ragged right alignment of lead headlines occurred 310 times for 68.7 percent. A quarter (116, 25.7 percent) of lead headlines used centered alignment. The remaining lead headlines fit the space end to end and could not be determined to be ragged or centered (19, 4.2 percent). Tabloid newspapers often used ragged left (6, 1.3 percent) lead headlines, as part of a photo-promo package.
Other headlines were mostly serif bold (196, 43.4 percent), serif regular (37, 8.2 percent) and a combination of both (76, 16.8 percent). Sans serif styles in bold (66, 14.6 percent), regular (11, 2.4 percent) and a combination of both (14, 3.1 percent) were far less utilized. A combination of both serif and sans serif type in bold and regular was found in 52 newspapers (11.5 percent).
Cutlines
Cutlines are primarily (90.6 percent) sans serif. Inside that figure, 41.7 percent are regular while 48.9 are bold. Of the remainder, 3.3 percent are regular serif, and 6.1 percent are bold serif. About three quarters (77.5 percent) of cutlines where placed using ragged right as their alignment. Justified alignment was used 17.6 percent and center alignment at 3.8 percent. A few (1.1 percent) used ragged left.
Color
Almost all (98.7 percent) of newspapers in 2014 used both color photographs and color text in their design. Those that did not used only color photos.
Photographs
Newspapers typically used two or three feature photographs (209, 46.2 percent); this is consistent with the 1995 study. Fifty-five newspapers (12.1 percent) used one photo, and 16 (3.5 percent) used no photos at all. On the higher end, 77 newspapers (17.0 percent) used four photos, and 58 (12.8 percent) used five. Thirty-seven (8.3 percent) used six or more photos.
Mugshot photos, which show a person’s head and shoulders, are used on some fronts, but most newspapers (277, 61.1 percent) do not use any. Ninety-three newspapers (20.5 percent) used one mugshot, while 18.3 percent (83) used two or more mugshots.
Photo illustrations, which are photos that have been altered with gradients and blurs, images that have been created by compositing two or more images and images of people who have been removed from their backgrounds, have become a staple of newspaper design, being used in 86.3 percent of newspapers. One photo illustration was featured on 176 fronts (38.9 percent), and two were used on 127 fronts (28.0 percent). Forty-six newspapers (10.2 percent) used three photo illustrations, and 42 (9.3 percent) used four or more.
Dominant Art
All newspapers used dominant art on their front pages. Overwhelmingly, newspapers used a single photo to anchor the page (345, 76.2 percent). Forty-six newspapers used an illustration or photo illustration as dominant art (10.2 percent). Twenty-two papers used multiple illustrations (4.9 percent), and 21 used multiple photos packaged together (4.6 percent). Four newspapers used headline art and infographics (0.8 percent) as dominant. Most newspapers (393, 86,8 percent) used dominant art as part of a story. Forty-five (9.9 percent) used it as a standalone promo to an inside story. Only 15 (3.3 percent) used standalone dominant art.
Advertisements
Only about a third (131, 28.9 percent) of newspapers do not include front page ads. The most common placement was across the bottom of the page (228, 50.3 percent). Multiple ads showed up on 9.7 percent (44). Some newspapers ran standard style ads, such as a two-column × 4″ ad (29, 6.4 percent). Seven (1.5 percent) ran an ad as part of the flag. Twelve (2.6 percent) included ads in the navigation, and two papers (0.4 percent) used nonstandard ad placements, such as an L shape on the page. Advertising was not counted in Pasternack and Utt’s research.
Social Media
The rise of social media has newspapers engaging readers with online content. However, only a few placed social media information on their front pages. Designs using both Twitter handles and Facebook pages comprised 11.0 percent of papers (50). Newspapers listed their Twitter handles only 1.3 percent (six) of the time and Facebook pages only 1.1 percent (five).
Alternative Story Forms (ASFs)
Infographics have evolved into a category called ASF. These articles can either be an infographic, breakout box, pulled quote or other graphic element that adds to a story. More than half (245, 54.1 percent) of newspapers used a single ASF. Sixty-four (14.1 percent) used two ASFs and 18 (3.9 percent) used three or more. A quarter of front pages (126, 27.8 percent) did not include any ASF. Primarily, newspapers used ASFs as standalone stories (207, 45.7 percent); 38 (8.4 percent) used them in conjunction with a story. The remaining 82 (18.1 percent) used ASFs in multiple ways.
RQ2 asked how the centralization of page design has affected front pages in newspaper chains. Hub design in newspapers has been touted as a way to cut costs for having dedicated designers at smaller newspapers, and to put good designers together in one place. 32 Some hubs use the same content for multiple titles, such as the Birmingham, Alabama, hub for Advance Publications, which uses the same stories for Birmingham, Huntsville and Mobile. Others, such as Gannett’s Nashville design hub, create new layouts for dozens of titles.
Newspapers whose design work is hubbed at the Louisville, Kentucky, Courier-Journal (Figure 2, left) tend to have a similar typeface for headlines. This face is different than newspapers hubbed at the Des Moines (Iowa) Register (Figure 2, right), for example, which is similar to the Nashville Tennessean hub. However, all Gannett fronts use serif and sans serif typefaces for headlines. In addition, Gannett newspapers use strong dominant art in centerpieces, with many using illustrations. Gannett newspapers always use promotions of inside content, and all feature content from USA Today, the chain’s flagship. Despite their similarities in layout and typefaces, Gannett newspapers tend to maintain a sense of individuality; only a few newspapers in New Jersey shared stories or dominant art. Instead, Gannett newspaper hubs embrace local content, designed in a similar way.
Gannett Front Pages
All Cox newspapers are strikingly similar. The Dayton (Ohio) Daily News (Figure 3, left) and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Figure 3, right) typify the Cox layout. All Cox papers use a five-column layout, with a rail in the first column. Promos are stacked on top of the flag, and vary from newspaper to newspaper. The centerpiece is topped with a blue bar, with an overline reversed into the blue and an all-caps sans serif headline leading the centerpiece package. A serif typeface is used for all other headlines on the page. In a nod to newspapers past, column rule lines separate columns of type. The newspapers generally maintain unique content on their fronts, although some of Cox’s Ohio titles used the same story in different ways.
Cox Front Pages
Former Scripps newspapers use similar styles but retain some individuality. As shown in Figure 4, Memphis, Tennessee’s Commercial Appeal (left) and Henderson, Kentucky’s Gleaner (right) use similar typography, navigation and promo structure. These newspapers feature sans serif lead headlines, and serif and sans serif faces for other headlines. Newspapers use a red square dingbat on subheadlines, They use a promo above the flag with rounded corners. Similarly, the rounded corners are repeated in the super index, which is similar at each title, but is modified to fit available space.
Scripps Front Pages
Last, several newspapers associated with Digital First Media (DFM) embraced that organization’s design. Some DFM newspapers are designed at hubs, while others are designed independently using the template. Figure 5 shows MediaNews Group’s Daily Breeze from Torrance, California (left), and twenty-first-century-media’s Daily Tribune of Royal Oak, Michigan (right). Both papers feature a bold, sans serif headline, a strip of promos above the flag, a four-item super index across the bottom and a centerpiece with an all-capital serif headline. Many DFM newspapers used all capitals serif flags, but some used normal serif flags. Several newspapers shared content, with some of the California newspapers even sharing centerpieces.
DigitalFirst Media Front Pages
Discussion
Today’s state of newspaper design is one of change. Newspapers are struggling to compete in a crowded media market and have taken tips from the Internet with improved navigation and from television with more visuals. The decrease in story counts indicates a shift toward more visuals, and less text. Hub newspaper design has taken visuals out of the hands of newsroom employees.
The mission of newspapers has changed drastically since Pasternack and Utt’s last look at front pages in 1995. Newspapers face staff cuts, layoffs and change. Gone are the days in which a person consumed news only via printed newspaper once a day, every day. Design might not be the only solution to the problems of the newspaper industry, but it clearly should be a part of it. The 3V format is making the printed newspaper into a product akin to a daily magazine, easy to read and geared toward scannable content.
The increased use of photographs, universal use of color, embrace of ASFs and use of promos all indicate a shift in front page design from being a content delivery vehicle to a marketing tool for the newspaper. Modern front pages are concerned with enticing readers to buy and to read. Furthermore, modern newspapers show readers as much as they tell them, through images, illustrations and ASFs. This kind of visual content aids the scanning reader, giving them an enjoyable experience reading the printed product.
The comparison of this study with its earlier research reveals some stark changes. As newspapers have decreased the width of pages, the typical number of columns has dropped from six to five. Similarly, the typical story count has dropped from five or six to three or four. Following the rise in visual media, front pages have moved from typically two photos to two to three, or more. And newspapers are using more infographics on front pages. The way pages are presented, too, has changed. Moving from a typical lead story placement in the top right, newspapers now use multiple approaches, including lead centerpiece stories, as is common on the Internet.
Centralized design often takes visual journalists away from the newsroom, and leaves no advocate for design and ASFs, unless an editor takes on the role. Furthermore, it removes those who understand local culture from the design process; by presenting a newspaper with a generalized design, readers might not see the publication as part of the community. Thus, newspapers and chains gravitating toward centralized design need to work to preserve the ties between visual journalists and the content creators at the various titles designed at the hub, as well as educate long-distance designers about local community culture. Discussions of storytelling, presentation and importance will go a long way to continue producing a product that appeals to readers. Without this, newspapers trend toward the McPaper trap, and readers do not feel a cultural, communal connection to their local newspaper.
Conclusion
Design remains an important component of newspaper production, even though many newspaper reporters rarely or never see their designers face to face. Newspapers are using more photos, fewer stories and clear navigation to entice readers into a newspaper and to guide them through to the inside. And they are using promos and teasers to get people to pick up and buy a copy from a vending machine or newsstand.
Front pages have greatly evolved from the six-story fronts of Utt and Pasternack’s first study. Newspaper front pages are looking more like a printed version of a website, with space, navigation, color and photographs. More and more, newspapers are looking the same. With centralized design, many titles are designed at one facility, sharing typefaces, headline and graphic styles, and even special layouts. The effects of this mass sharing of content are not yet known but might prove a fruitful avenue of research. However, this study provides ample evidence that chains are spreading stories and design at multiple titles, some even in the same market.
This study is limited by the one-day sample of newspapers. Although this created a sufficient data pool for analysis, newspaper design changes day to day, and observation over a structured week would provide a better snapshot of design; this itself would require a substantial investment of time in coding.
Future research regarding newspaper design has several options. First, researchers should explore the link between front page design and rack sales. Second, research should address reader satisfaction with varying front page designs, including fewer stories and jumps, more promos and more ASFs. Finally, scholars should examine audience reactions and satisfaction about the 3V format, as many newspapers consider adopting it instead of broadsheet.
Footnotes
Editors’ Note
This article was accepted for publication under the editorship of Sandra H. Utt and Elinor Kelley Grusin.