NEWSPAPER FORMATS

LEARNING OBJECTIVE: Recognize the types of formats of ship or station newspapers.

The three formats used in ship and station newspapers are full format, tabloid and magazine. These formats are shown in figure 8-5 and are described in the following text.

FULL FORMAT

A full-format (also known as broadsheet) newspaper is one that measures 16 or 17 inches wide and 21 to 22 inches deep. A fill-format newspaper can be made to have five columns, six columns, seven and one-half columns, eight columns or nine columns.

TABLOID

A tabloid newspaper is about half the size of a full-format newspaper. It measures 10 to 12 inches wide and 14 to 18 inches deep. A tabloid format newspaper can have two, three, four, five, five and one-half and six columns.

MAGAZINE

A magazine-format (also known as compact) newspaper is about half the size of a tabloid newspaper. It measures 7 to 8 inches wide and 10 to 11 inches deep. It can be made to have one column, two columns and three columns.

NEWSPAPER DESIGN

LEARNING OBJECTIVE: Detail the techniques used in ship or station newspaper design and any specific considerations, respectively.

Other important considerations (beyond the news gathering, news writing and copy editing aspects covered in the preceding chapters) are the techniques for putting the material together so that your paper emphasizes what is important. You will also need to know what makes an attractive appearance and draws and holds the reader's eye. All of this is done through good layout and makeup designed to achieve the best overall appearance and style of the publication and to allow the reader to obtain the maximum information in the shortest time.

Layout is the planning of the position and page that each piece of copy or art will occupy in your publication. This includes your choosing the styles and sizes of headlines desired, the kinds and sizes of type to be used and deciding how to use them, and indicating these plans on the layout sheets.

Makeup is normally the execution of that layout by the publisher (the compositor), although sometimes the terms layout and makeup are used interchangeably. For instance, the name "makeup editor" is used on some newspapers instead of "layout editor."

THE DUMMY

Indicating on the layout sheet where each element will be placed (sometimes called dummying or roughing in) may be done as each segment of material is forwarded to the publisher. Some publishers will even

give you rough proofs of galley type, headlines and art and let you make a paste-up dummy on a layout sheet. Paste-up dummies ensure a high degree of accuracy in page makeup because they give the publisher a better

Figure 8-6. - Newspaper blueprint (dummy).

overall picture of what you want. Do not confuse a ^{THE BLUEPRINT} paste-up dummy with a paste-up for photo-offset work. _{The blueprint for a newspaper is its layout sheets,} A paste-up dummy is merely a guide for the publisher; _{or dummies, on which a detailed plan or sketch shows}

^{a paste-up for photo-offset is smooth copy to be} the arrangement of art, heads and copy to guide the _{photographed for printing.} compositor in making up the actual pages. Figure 8-6 is

Figure 8-7. - The finished product based on the blueprint layout in figure 8-6.

an example of such a dummy, and figure 8-7 shows the day before publication that you have only eight pages of finished product that resulted from it. material for a 12-page publication. What is more, if you piece together a publication at the last minute without a The layout is an absolute necessity if you are to layout - throwing in an article here and a picture there avoid the amateur editor's nightmare - finding out the - you will come up with a meaningless hodge-podge.

Whether you consider layout an art or simply a mechanical skill, it is clearly an involved, demanding function. You must acquire the following skills to become a good layout editor:

l A keen news sense to know which stories to emphasize and how strongly to emphasize them

l A good working knowledge of typography

l An understanding of graphic design principles and techniques

l A familiarity with modem newspaper design techniques

Layout duties on ship and station newspapers are usually handled by the editor, associate editor and subordinate editors (sports, leisure, and so forth). On large commercial dailies, front-page layout is usually done by one of the executive editors - managing editor, news editor or copy editorto ensure top-level emphasis of particular stories and ideas. Other pages are done by department editors (sport, feature, editorial) and by copy editors.

Remember: your layout is your blueprint, and blueprints are drawn to scale. So start by making up a standard layout sheet, showing the page with its columns drawn either to scale or to size. (A layout sheet of actual page size is the easiest to use.) The layout sheet should be marked for column widths. The top of each page should allow space for showing the issue, the page and the section of the paper. The best way to indicate where a story goes is to write in the story slug (the short identification line that goes right before the writer's name on a piece of copy), as shown in figure 8-8. You can use keys for art and your headlines can be written in.