Mansfield on Media

A reminder: The deadline for entries to be received for the 29th Edition competition is January 16.

Need instructions? More entry forms? Download the Call for Entries here.

If you’re sitting in the middle of a bunch of ice and snow, you might be thinking that Florida or California in January sounds like a great idea.

It is.

Not only can you escape the winter doldrums, but you can gain some mighty useful new skills at the same time.

Jan. 18-19: Audio & Video Editing, Cerritos College, Cerritos, California
Jan. 18-19: Story Forms Boot Camp, The Poynter Institute, St. Petersburg, Florida

But January in these locales is popular, so you need to book your room early.

ST. PETERSBURG
The Heritage Hotel
234 Third Avenue North
(727) 822-4814
Mention The Poynter Institute for the group rate of $129.95.
This block will be released on 12/17 so make your reservations now.

The Hilton Hotel
333 First Street South
(727) 825-7005
Mention The Poynter Institute or the Society for News Design for the group rate of $155.
This block will be released 12/19 so make your reservations now.

CERRITOS
Quality Inn & Suites
16905 S. Pioneer Blvd.
Artesia, Calif.
The hotel is two miles from Cerritos College.
(562) 402-2202.
Mention the Society for News Design for the group rate of $59.
This block will be released on 12/27 so make your reservations now.

Check out the full calendar and an interactive map of locations.

By Del Stone Jr.
Deputy managing editor of the Northwest Florida Daily News and a columnist for SND Design Journal

Print journalism is undergoing a revolution. The end.

Should I say more?

How about this: No revolution is worth its salt unless a whole new language is invented to accommodate the revolution. For instance, why use ”list” or ”graphic” or ”map” when you can say ”interactive tag cloud” and mystify your peers? And nothing is truly ”local” unless it is ”hyperlocal,” which suggests a Google map tracing my route from the dry cleaners to Wal-Mart to … we’ll leave that last stop off the list. But in reality ”hyperlocal” simply means ”local” to the journalists who were too busy trying to win Pulitzers to cover local news.

The success or failure of any revolution rides squarely on the shoulders of its incomprehensibility to everyone but its facilitators, which sometimes succeeds (see ”Internet”) and sometimes fails (see ”tax code”).

Your role as agent of revolution is to spread the incomprehensible dialect of The New Way, and I am here to help you. I have assembled a Little Red Book for the journalist soldier. Use it wisely, Melanoplus angustipennis, and you will win the hearts and minds of your peer proletariat.

At your next cocktail party drop these conversation-stoppers and watch the uninitiated designers melt into your arms.

Skankatorium: An interactive database of failed marriages, arrests, lawsuits and parental disavowals for people like Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Bill Clinton.

Dataeorologist: A data manager who uses various cloud types to represent information densities in a visual presentation. For instance, areas of heavy information density would be demarked by cumulonimbus clouds, while medium densities would be nimbostratus and scattered densities, altocumulus. Fog would represent areas of uncertainty. By the way, did you like the word ”demarked”? I made that up.

Composter: An analogist who translates information into audio packets that can be assembled into compositions. You have not lived until you’ve heard the concerto Sentinel Chickens Sickened by West Nile Virus in F Minor by Composter C. H. Sanders.

Ludditante: A person who disdains the print journalism revolution and makes a kind of fashion statement out of his or her disdain.

Splash page: This is a term borrowed from our brothers in the comic book industry. It refers to a Web page containing a single, arresting image accompanied by text or audio quotes such as, ”Aaargh!” ”Gahhh!” ”Blam!” or ”Eeeeeek!”

Databaster: An information specialist who assembles interactive Thanksgiving turkey recipes, including video clips submitted by readers who actually set fire to their kitchens while trying to baste the bird.

Cartographyte: A graphic artist who makes maps do crazy things, like play a nation’s national anthem when you move your pointer over that nation on the map.

Dramaturge: A journalist who designs ”moods” for graphics, maps and clouds of information. A map depicting a tornado outbreak could be accompanied by the sound of howling winds, the basso rumbling of thunder and the foul language of storm chasers. A happiness index presentation could be delivered in rainbow format with smiling sun avatars and dancing lollipops.

Vidiot: A specialist who translates stories and databases into video presentations — even if they don’t lend themselves to video interpretation. If you believe nothing could be done with a list of local 12-step groups you have not met an A-list vidiot.

Smagala: Smagala is a Japanese fire monster that is eating Osaka and heading for Tokyo! He makes Godzilla look like a Webkinz pet. But he can also be an avatar for threat, menacing interactive graphics, maps, even clouds. For instance, a graphic depicting the bite of local, state and federal taxes could have Smagala taking chomps out of a family’s paycheck, not to mention whatever coverage your Web site provides of Paris Hilton.

Yes, in the age of information transformation it is important all you Che’s speak the lingua fraca of the revolution. With luck this bandolier of terms will enable you to overcome counterrevolutionaries in the war on clarity.

Del Stone Jr. is leading the charge at the Northwest Florida Daily News. He’s a regular columnist for SND’s Design Journal, where this column will appear. To subscribe to Design Journal you have to join SND, which you can do here.

The countdown is already on for SNDVegas, set for Sept. 7-9, 2008 at the fabulous Red Rock Resort and Casino here in Las Vegas.

Today, SND’s officers met with the directors of APME and APPM to discuss logistics and planning for the first-ever joint workshops between the organizations. SND Vegas site chair Bill Gaspard led the group on a tour of the magnificent facilities that SND/APPM/APME members will enjoy next fall, and believe me, it left the group breathless (a common occurrence here in Vegas).

I mean, let’s put it this way — the meeting rooms are sexy. Seriously. And when’s the last time you could say THAT and mean it?

The planning is already in the very advanced stage, thanks to Mr. Gaspard’s tireless efforts. Your SNDVegas registration will also get you into all the programs for APME and APPM, and the three groups will hold several combined sessions on Tuesday, Sept. 9.

Check out the Red Rock’s website and start dreaming of next fall. And check back often at sndvegas.com for complete details on what promises to be an amazing workshop!

Illustration by Mike Essl

Chip Kidd, SND Boston keynote speaker, has very little, yet so much, to say about the new Amazon Kindle. I would quote him, but considering it’s coming from A Brief Message, I’ll let you check it out for yourself.

In these hard times, whoever heard of two new newspapers launched within days of each other? But that’s exactly what happened in Delhi, India, just this past week.

First off the block was Mail Today, a joint venture between India Today group and Associated Newspapers of UK. The tabloid hit the streets on Nov 16.

Mail Today (www.mailtoday.in) looks and reads just like its big sister, and is aimed at women.

Then on Nov 21, Aaj Samaaj (Hindi for Society Today) appeared in the streets of Delhi. The 20-page full-color broadsheet is owned by Good Morning India Media, owned by Kartik Sarma, son of a Congress Party MP and former Cabinet Minister.

Aaj Samaaj is competing with Hindustan, the Hindi paper owned by the Hindustan Times (now undergoing some tweaking by SND regional director Gabi Schmidt), Dainik Jagran (India’s biggest Hindi paper), Dainik Bhaskar, Navbharat Times (owned by the Times of India) and several smaller ones.

The Sarma family has been receiving bad press in the last couple of years. One of the sons, Manu, was involved in the shooting murder of a waitress-model in Delhi.

Aroon Purie, chairman and editor-in-chief of India Today Group said Mail Today will follow the Daily Mail pattern of reaching out to women, who have been largely ignored by the mainstream press.

Delhi (population about 14 million) is a crowded newspaper market like many of the big cities in India. There are no fewer than 15 dailies to choose from.

Mitsubishi Motor Sales of Canada Inc. presented Hank Van de Vondervoort, Automotive Editor of the Globe & Mail’s Auto section with the 2007 Mitsubishi Design and Layout Award at the 24th Annual Automotive Journalism Awards.

The award was inaugurated in 2003 to recognize the talents of reporters and their teams to apply creative design and layout techniques to enhance the visual appeal of their work and capture the reader’s attention.

Each print publication was judged on skill and creativity and the thought that went in to gathering the design elements, including illustration and photography. The judges, through the evaluation process, maintained an effort to equalize entries based on the various printing techniques of both newspaper and magazines.

“The Globe Auto section is a perfect example of how good typography, well layered information and nicely cropped photography can entice the reader by not only giving a good impression, but by making the information accessible,” said Vancouver based Matt Warburton. They have fun with the layouts and typography on the front page, while the rest of the section is consistently structured and laid out.”

A second place award was given to the Winnipeg Free Press for its Automotive Showcase section produced by Kelly Taylor. Suzanne Dimma, Design Director for Wish magazine praises the newspaper for its playful use of almost full-page caricatures of automotive personalities like Stirling Moss and adventuresome approach with a great mix of stories, features and reporting.

Judges for the award included Suzanne Dimma, Design Director of Wish magazine, Canadian Family magazine, Gardening Life magazine and host of HGTV’s newest production, The Style Dept.; Sylvie Berkowicz, Chief Editor for Creativite Montreal; and Matt Warburton, award winning designer (nominated in 2003 as a GDC Fellow, an honour which is awarded to a designer or individual who by influence or accomplishment has made a major contribution to graphic design in Canada) and founder of Emdoubleyu Design in Vancouver.

Gordon Preece
Director, Region 9, Western Canada