Layout-and-Design-for-Schoolpaper-2015.pdf

Aris L. Solis
Faculty, College of Communication, PUP

The purpose of a student newspaper
is to provide campus news coverage
and to help students to learn the craft
of journalism. A large part of that
learning is experiential, and includes
making, and learning from, mistakes
-The San Matean
(College of San Mateo, California)

Where do I start?
 Know your School’s Mission and Vision
 Know your Newspaper’s purpose
 Know your target audience
 Know your SWOT
 Know what you need
 Know your budget and how to obtain it
 Know DepEd’s, your school’s and
community’s calendar of activities

Know your School’s Mission
 An effective mission must stretch and
challenge the organization, yet be
achievable.
 It is tangible, value-driven, energizing,
highly focused, and moves the organization
forward.
 It is a crisp, clear, engaging statement that
reaches out and grabs people in the gut.
 A mission has a finish line for its
achievement and is proactive.
 A mission should walk the boundary
between the possible and the impossible.

Know your School’s Vision
 A shared vision is a specific description
of what it will be like when the mission is
achieved.
 A vision is a mental image.
 It must be written in practical, concrete
terms that everyone can understand and
see in the same way.

Know your School’s Values
 Values and beliefs are the core of who
you are, what you do, and how you think
and feel.
 Values and beliefs reflect what is
important to you
 They describe what you think about
school and how you think it should
operate.

What is your Paper’s Purpose
 It is the voice of your Students,
Teachers, Faculty, your School, your
Community, your Baranggay
 Record keeping of your School’s and
Community’s achievements, events and
activities
 Recruitment, Training ground and talent
development and management for
NSPC contestants

Know your Target Audience
 Students, Faculty and Parents
 Community
 Barangay Officials
 School Board
 DSPC Judges
 RSPC and NSPC judges who are
professional writers and journalists

Know your SWOT
 Strengths
 Weaknesses
 Opportunities
 Threats

Know what you Need
 Office
 Computers
 Storage
 Camera/s
 WiFi
 Printer
 White Board
 Books, Magazines and Newspapers
 A Functioning Editorial Team

Know your Budget
 How much is your budget
 Do not be afraid to dream big
 Get support from your barangay, town or city
 Get corporate support and sponsorships
 Make your paper, a money generating office
 You can get advertisements, but how?
 If your students are skilled, who’s stopping
them from making profit (layout, photography
and writing)

Know your Calendar of Activities
 Use a Whiteboard to schedule and mark
all of your events and activities
 School
 Community
 Barangay
 Mark all your events for photo and story
coverage
 Task students to get involved
 Collect, tag and rank photos and stories
for future use

Additional, on photos
 Rather using photos taken from the
internet, find a way to shoot, get and
store stock and file photos from your
students, school and community
 Making or shooting Stock photos can be
a way to train students and generate
money

Current Trends
 Modular and Grid Designs
 Packaged Stories
 Bigger Headlines
 Bigger Photos
 Skybox
 Purpose Driven
 Thematic
 Infographics

Elements of a Newspaper
 Masthead- Details of the publisher, place
of publication, editorial staff and
information about the newspaper,
generally placed on the editorial page.
 Flag- The printed title (i.e., name and logo)
of a newspaper at the top of the front
page.
 Folio- Newspaper name, date and page
number that appear at the top of each
page.

 Fold – name used to literally mean the line
caused by where a printed newspaper was
folded over. Above the fold is generally
used to refer to the top half of the page of
broadsheet newspapers.
 Dateline - the words at the beginning of a
news article that tell when and where the
story was written.

 White space - Areas of a page free of any type
or artwork.
 News article - a story about an event that has
just taken place.
 Feature article - a detailed report on a person,
an issue, or an event
 Headlines - brief description of the story
 Banner - a headline stretching across the top of
a page.
 Photographs - the main illustration of the news
 Cutlines - tells the reader what is going on in the
photo, the names of persons in the frame and the
photographers name

 Subhead - an additional summary printed
beneath the headline in smaller, but still
large font as a way of both clarifying the
headline and as a way of leading the
reader into the story.
 Byline - beneath the subhead (if there is
one) is usually the byline that lists the
name of the writer or organization that
prepared the story.

 Sidebars - information related to the story
that is significant on its own, pertinent to
the reader and fills out the whole news
package
 Jumpline - used to continue a story on
another page. Text indicates to the reader
both which page to turn to as well as how
the story will be marked on that page
(usually a jump page).

 Pullquotes - interesting quotes from the story
that can be understood without reading the
story, but make the reader want to
 Mugshots - tightly cropped photos of a
person's head that are used to identify the
main players in the article
 Breakout boxes - similar to sidebars but
contain information from the story that calls
the reader to action, such as the time and
location of an event being reported on

 Infographics - An infographic (short for
information graphic) is a type of picture that
blends data with design, helping individuals
and organizations concisely communicate
messages to their audience
 Skybox - Teasers that run above the flag on
Page One. If they're boxed (with art), they're
called skyboxes or boxcars; if they use only a
line of type, they're called skylines.
 Package - A bundle of related stories and
photos

Color
 A single spot of color is bright and
splashy and can be used to enhance a
page and to enlighten readers. Line art
and photos are even stronger when the
4color process is used: cyan (light blue),
magenta (red plum), yellow and black.
Black is a constant color; it is present
even if the other three are not.

 A newspaper is not an advertising circular, a
cereal box or a comic book.
 Loud, comic book color does not lend
credibility to the editorial product. For this
reason, try to use full color with carefully
selected screens to produce a subtle palette
of distinctive, not raucous, color.
 Four-color should be used in the paper as a
partner in the communication of news.

 Different colors evoke different
emotions--red is active, yellow allows
the most light to the eye, and blue is
most calming. Red and yellow expand
on the page; blue contracts. So, for
excitement, use red or yellow; for
informational graphics, blue is more
respectable.

 Color is--after all--only one element in
design. If a photo does not render a
strong and positive image in black and
white, it will not do so in 4-color. In such
a situation, it would be better to
substitute an illustration or something
else in spot color or black and white that
does work.

⚫ Yellow
– happy, caution, joy
⚫ Brown
– warm, fall, dirt, earth
⚫ Green
– go, on, safe, envy, lush,
pastoral
⚫ Purple
– royal, sophisticated, Barney
Color Meanings: Contextually Specific
 Red
 aggression, love
 hot, warning, stop, radiation
 Pink
 female, cute, cotton candy
 Orange
 warm, autumn, Halloween
 Blue
 cold, off

Color Meanings: Culturally
Specific
http://www.ricklineback.com/culture2.htm

From Mario Garcia
“what you see is
how it is.”

Mario Garcia’s Design Theories
 Make it easy to read - use typography
that is clear, easy on the eyes and very
legible.
 Make it easy to find - employ
navigational tools that allow the reader to
get to the content he or she wishes to read
in the least amount of time possible.
 Make it visually appealing - provide
an environment in which good content will
find attractive display, thus increasing the
number of readers who will use it.

A well-designed paper must have:
 Newsy and appealing front pages.
 At least three powerful stories (high on
emotion, low on baggage).
 At least one wonderful photo that conveys
it all in ten seconds.
 A list of what I must know I’ll find in the
paper today.
 A very short list of what I should know if I
have an extra five minutes.
 Something to make me feel good about
me.

10 Tips for Better Design & Layout
 Create hierarchy: Readers see at a
glance what are the most important
stories on the page. Centerpieces
anchor each page.

 Create a Center of Visual Impact
(CVI): More than 80 percent of readers
climb into the page through the lead
image. Each page must have dominant
art. Almost all pages will have lead art
from the lead story or the centerpiece.
CVI determines the news value of the
page. If it is soft on page 1A, the entire
page will scream "soft news" to readers.

 Organize: Because readers are in a
hurry, information on the page must be
organized to avoid confusion. Make sure
the design helps to highlight the
questions readers will have about this
information.

 Contrast: Successful pages will have
vertical and horizontal elements. There
will be dominant and secondary
elements. There will be lead and
dominant headlines and secondary
heads.

 Color: Color should be used to inform,
not as window dressing. Best use of
color is in photos and graphics. Color
also helps move the reader around a
package. Designers should have logic
for use of color. Remember to use
restraint.

 Typography: The more type faces
used, the more disorganized it is to
readers. Editors are encouraged to
spend more time on what headlines say
than trying to decide what typeface to
use.

 Surprise the reader: In every issue we
should give readers a surprise a head,
photo, story, page design or graphic that
is so outstanding that they would pass it
along for another person to read. Design
can enhance that surprise. The secret:
make it special.

 Break the rules: Guidelines are made
to be broken, but only for a valid reason.
If the rules are constantly broken,
consistency goes out the window. That
ruins the impact of a visual surprise
because there is no benchmark to
compare the surprise to for readers.
Page designers are encouraged to take
risks with the basics. Don't be so
predictable as to be boring.

 Consistency: Keep things in the same
place each day so busy readers don't
spend too much time hunting for
information rather than reading.

 Make it fun: Seek the opinion of other
staffers and don't have a thin skin.
Simple yet dynamic design should
result. Content is the most important
part of page design. Remember the goal
with design is to get readers into the
body and rest of the contents.

How to Design Good Pages
 RANK YOUR STORIES - Before you
touch pencil to paper or hand to mouse,
rank your stories. You must know what
the stories are about and evaluate their
news value. Don't be lazy; read them.
Once you have ranked them, generally
place them in descending order on the
page according to their importance.
Story placement is a nonverbal cue that
indicates their importance to readers.

 BUILD YOUR PAGE AROUND ART -
When you design, start with the art and
build your page around it. Pages are
built around photographs and graphics.
Your design options often will become
clear once you place photographs and
graphics, especially if they go with
stories.

 HAVE ONE DOMINANT ELEMENT,
usually a photo with a story. You must give
the reader a reason to stop and look at the
page. Often the dominant element is a story
with a photo, but it can have more photos,
quotes and graphics to provide the reader
with more points of entry onto the page.
 Your central package must dominate the
page so that the reader's eye is drawn to it.

 If you only have one photo, PLAY IT BIG.
Eye-Trac research shows most readers
enter a page by looking at photos. If you
have only one photo, make it big enough to
catch the reader's attention. Photos can be
smaller if you have more of them.
 If you have an open page, the dominant
photo generally should be: At least 3
columns if it is vertical. At least 4 columns if
it is horizontal.

 VARIATIONS - Vary the sizes and
shapes of the photos and graphics to
add variety and visual appeal to the
page. Photos that have similar shapes
and sizes are dull, giving the reader little
reason to sample them. If they are
nearly the same, none stands out. Avoid
square photographs.

 USE A MIXTURE OF VERTICAL AND
HORIZONTAL ELEMENTS to add
variety to the page and to move the
reader's eyes around it. Cross the page
at least once with type. Don't leave
vertical gutters that run all the way down
the page and divide it visually. Avoid
stacking, or pancaking, stories on top of
one other. None of them will stand out.

 USE PHOTOS AND OTHER GRAPHIC
ELEMENTS to break up the gray and to
avoid tombstoning headlines. Secondary
photos and graphics are wonderful ways
to break up headlines and to add life to
the bottom of your pages. This is
especially true with jumps. Make your
art work for you.

 Honor the hierarchy of type. Generally,
headlines should decrease in size as you
go down the page because the stories are
less important. Use three-line headlines
above two-line headlines.
 The main exception to type hierarchy is the
headline at the bottom of an open page on
an anchor story, which gives the reader a
reason to look at the story. You need a
bigger headline to attract a reader to the
bottom of the page In most cases, use a
48-point headline for an anchor.

 Use screens and color to add variety to
your pages. Use screens more when
you have only one piece of art,
especially on the bottom part of the back
page. Keep screens small to increase
their legibility. Color is more effective
when used sparingly.

SND Tips for Better Design
These tips for dynamic design come from
judges in the Society for News Design's
1998 awards competition.
 Allow content to drive design:
Structure and format are wonderful, but
only so long as they allow the ability to
react to the unexpected. The judges
demanded flexibility in the winning
designs.

 Think like, not for the reader: Superficial,
institution coverage presented without a
sense of context was frowned upon. The
winning papers dealt with relevant
issues to the reader. The winners told
the readers what they wanted to know.

 Reflect the community being served:
The judges noted the lack of diversity on
both the visuals and written content on
the front pages of many of the papers in
the competition. The winners were seen
as inclusive of all demographic
segments of the communities. "The
world is far more diverse than the
average white male," one judge noted.

 Develop a visual personality: Reflect the
community that is being served. The
judges decried the sameness that
permeates North American newspapers.
They noted, however, this did not begin
or end with the inclusion of an icon of
the community (building, animal, etc.)
which was seen as a fad to be avoided.

 Give the same care and attention to
words as design: The judges found that
headlines and captions in many of the
entries were "dull ... boring ... lifeless"
representing a handoff effect where they
become lost in the production process
on the copy desk. Headlines and
captions should say something, and not
be left to the end of the process.

 Package information in a lively manner:
The winning entries reflected the
"urgency ... vitality of daily life."

 Keep it simple: Avoid the fads that
interfere with the ability to communicate
effectively with the reader. The judges
suggested understanding that working
with every tool available (color, graphics,
photographs, typography, etc.) did not
require all of them to be used at once.

 Treat typography with respect:
Remember the basics ... type is not, and
never was, intended to be elastic.

 Take care with the details: Remember
that no matter how good the design,
poor production values can destroy it.

 Surprise the reader and have fun: Every
day's paper should contain a surprise for
the readers... something that should
stop them and make them take notice.

“If you can design a newspaper
that’s inviting, informative and easy
to read, you can successfully
compete with all those TVs, CDs,
computers and magazines. You can
keep a noble old institution – the
newspaper – alive for another day.”
– Tim Harrower, Newspaper Designer

Tim Harrower’s Rules of thumb
 All stories should be shaped like rectangles
 Everything should be modular
 Avoid placing any graphic element in the middle of
a leg of type
 Avoid placing art at the bottom of a leg of type
 Text that wraps below a photo should be at least
1 inch deep
 Every page should have a dominant piece of art
 A well designed page is generally at least 1/3 art

 Avoid boxing stories (putting articles in a box
or frame) just to keep headlines from butting
 Only box stories if they are special or
different
 The optimum depth for legs of text is 2-10
inches
 Use italics, boldface, reverse and special
effects in SMALL doses
 Type smaller than 8 point is difficult to read

 Every story needs a headline
 Headlines should get smaller as you move
down the page
 5-10 words are optimum for most headlines
 Don’t butt headlines (placing them right next
to one another)
 When in doubt, run one big photo instead of
two smaller photos
 When using two or more photos, make one
dominant

 Try to vary the shapes and sizes of all photos.
 When cutlines run beside photos, they should be at
least 6 picas wide
 When cutlines run below the photo, square them
off evenly and make sure they do not extend
beyond either edge of the photo
 Run at least 4 inches of a story before you jump it
 Jump at least 6 inches of a story
 Jump stories once and only once
 Whenever possible jump all stories to the same
place

Widows and Orphans
 Widow - A widow is a word or line of text
that is forced to go on alone and start its
own column or page.
 Orphan - An orphan is a single word at the
bottom of a paragraph that gets left behind

Some techniques for eliminating
widows include:
 Forcing a page break early, producing a shorter page;
 Adjusting the leading, the space between lines of text
(although such carding or feathering is usually frowned
upon)
 Adjusting the spacing between words to produce 'tighter'
or 'looser' paragraphs
 Adjusting the hyphenation of words or characters within
the paragraph
 Adjusting the page's margins
 Subtle scaling of the page, though too much non-uniform
scaling can visibly distort the letters
 Rewriting a portion of the paragraph
 Reduce the tracking of the words
 Adding a pull quote to the text (more common for
magazines)
 Adding a figure to the text, or resizing an existing figure.

Hypens, En-Dash, Em-Dashes
 Hyphens (-) are used to connect compound
words to form an adjective like “snow-
covered” or divide a word that breaks from the
end of a line to the next.
 En-dash (–) is longer than a hyphen (-) but
shorter than an em-dash (—), and is used to
indicate range by spanning time or quantities.
 Em-dashes (—) are used to break a thought—
they’re the longest of the three dashes. Or they
are used—with an opening and ending dash
like this—to add a thought in the middle of a
sentence. If you want to set a thought apart
and bring attention to it, use an em-dash.

INFORMATIONAL GRAPHICS
 Informational graphics--which can be
charts, maps, graphs, illustrations, and
photos--are used in TPC page design to
explain the story through a visual image.
5/9/2023 Sanjay Ranade, HoD, DCJ, UoM
70

 Infographics are most effectively used at
papers where the news reporters are
continually anticipating, preparing and
collecting--when not in a crisis situation--
information that will be essential but
unavailable when they are working
against a deadline.
71

 Informational graphics should never be
used only as an alternative to a photo or
illustration, or as something thrown in to
break up an otherwise gray page.
Effective informational graphics (also
called "factgraphics" or "infographs")
require the same degree of accuracy as
the stories that they accompany.
72

 The infograph should truly reflect the news, and
its content should be available for quick retrieval
just moments after a news story breaks. For this
to occur, an art staff--or perhaps "infographers"-
-must keep a constantly updated and cataloged
library of source materials that should include
advertising logos, brochures, building diagrams,
charts, clip art, copyright-free and original
graphics, floor plans, maps, page layouts from
other newspapers, pamphlets, photos,
postcards, reference books and statistical data.
73

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