What makes this page a BFD: Nice touches on a big package
It was a mixed bag of stories today. Frequently seen were stories about winter weather, pro football and the Missouri boys. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch stayed with the boys' story, but dropped the parallel treatment from yesterday that helped to show that this was a two-person story.
The best headline was seen on the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram: "A life spent facing death," but the below-the-fold placement of the main headline did not support a single-copy strategy.
The Indianapolis Star had the best coverage of the Colts, with a nice, clean page. Not surprisingly, front pages from Pennsylvania and Louisiana also led with football. Overall, the Louisiana papers did a much better job with the Eagles and Saints than the papers from Pennsylvania. The Sun Herald had a high-impact above-the-fold treatment, but the cutout at the bottom seemed awkward – the player at the top seemed to "shake hands" with the coach at the bottom. The Times-Picayune had the best front design.
A big headline and a 6-column photo were no-brainers, but this page went further with some additional nice touches: Using a nice, clean lead photo with clearly visible faces and no distractions in the background, placing the score with team logos above the nameplate, parallel treatment for the front-page columns, using the refer box to separate the columns, and a special border around the entire football package to help separate it from the unrelated stories below.
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