Trading Papers: Two Newsrooms Switch Off
By Tim Martin
Eastern Illinois University
The idea originated at a bar.
Take two designers from both The San Jose Mercury News and The Los Angeles Times and have them switch newsrooms for a day.
Two news design directors. Two feature designers. Film it all, using the theme and music of the television show, "Trading Spaces."
No problem, right? Wrong.
Think about the personalities of both papers: The Merc News, immersed within Silicon Valley and graphic designers; The Times, a paper that one editor said was "scrutinized by the nation" on a daily basis. Even the people selected for the switch boldly represented the paper's contrasting themes. From the Merc-News, two younger designers, dressed casually and colorfully. From the Times, two older designers, dressed more professionally.
And so, the rimrodding of the switches brought forth an awkwardness that the crowd found hilarious. It was almost like that "Freaky Friday" movie where the mother and the daughter switch bodies and lives for a while. That was how the switch seemed to play out. The younger, rebel-like, risk-taking designers from the Merc News challenged the methodologies of the more conservative newsroom of the Times. The designers from the Times, at moments, seemed to wear on their faces and expressions a look that communicated: "Huh, we can actually do that?"
When the L.A. Times feature designer, Keli Sullivan, finished her centerpiece for the Books page, she had used spot color and taken chances with the typography. She had stepped out of her norm. Sullivan told her Times colleague, Bill Gaspard, what she was able to do, and he responded: "You must feel like you're on drugs."
When Merc News feature designer, Stephanie Grace Lim, wanted to experiment with a photo illustration, the idea so struck Times editors they purposely set her up to fail, sending her to a barren photo studio and giving her a digital camera she thought was from the 1800s.
Lim finished the photo illustration, but it has yet to run in the paper.
At the heart of the session was a phrase that Matt Mansfield, deputy managing editor for the Merc News, used during a conversation with Gaspard: "We have different DNA."
Both newspapers demonstrate a personality that reflects their readers, and that's the lesson that should be learned here. Although the designers from the Merc News or the Times wanted to adhere to their own beliefs and habits, it was not in the best interest of the newspaper because it would jolt the readers.
Eastern Illinois University
The idea originated at a bar.
Take two designers from both The San Jose Mercury News and The Los Angeles Times and have them switch newsrooms for a day.
Two news design directors. Two feature designers. Film it all, using the theme and music of the television show, "Trading Spaces."
No problem, right? Wrong.
Think about the personalities of both papers: The Merc News, immersed within Silicon Valley and graphic designers; The Times, a paper that one editor said was "scrutinized by the nation" on a daily basis. Even the people selected for the switch boldly represented the paper's contrasting themes. From the Merc-News, two younger designers, dressed casually and colorfully. From the Times, two older designers, dressed more professionally.
And so, the rimrodding of the switches brought forth an awkwardness that the crowd found hilarious. It was almost like that "Freaky Friday" movie where the mother and the daughter switch bodies and lives for a while. That was how the switch seemed to play out. The younger, rebel-like, risk-taking designers from the Merc News challenged the methodologies of the more conservative newsroom of the Times. The designers from the Times, at moments, seemed to wear on their faces and expressions a look that communicated: "Huh, we can actually do that?"
When the L.A. Times feature designer, Keli Sullivan, finished her centerpiece for the Books page, she had used spot color and taken chances with the typography. She had stepped out of her norm. Sullivan told her Times colleague, Bill Gaspard, what she was able to do, and he responded: "You must feel like you're on drugs."
When Merc News feature designer, Stephanie Grace Lim, wanted to experiment with a photo illustration, the idea so struck Times editors they purposely set her up to fail, sending her to a barren photo studio and giving her a digital camera she thought was from the 1800s.
Lim finished the photo illustration, but it has yet to run in the paper.
At the heart of the session was a phrase that Matt Mansfield, deputy managing editor for the Merc News, used during a conversation with Gaspard: "We have different DNA."
Both newspapers demonstrate a personality that reflects their readers, and that's the lesson that should be learned here. Although the designers from the Merc News or the Times wanted to adhere to their own beliefs and habits, it was not in the best interest of the newspaper because it would jolt the readers.
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