This is the weekend edition of TheMarioBlog and will be updated as needed. The next blog post is Monday, September 10. I will be reporting from Hamburg, Germany.
Some days we celebrate print. I admit there are not many of those these days, with very skinny, flimsy editions of printed newspaper. I have just traveled to and from Atlanta, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution daily editions looked a bit anorexic to me. Same is true of USA Today on most days. A two-section newspaper is the norm Monday through Friday.
So, it was a happy surprise to see this Washington Post edition that included four special sections: NFLPreview, Parenting, Food and Travel, in addition to the regular news and sports sections.
Unusual, for sure. Special, definitely.
But we can’t forge that this is a newspaper that is at the top of the list of innovators in terms of digital storytelling, which makes their constant exploits in the design of the print edition all the more intriguing and worthy of praise.
I am using The Washington Post in my seminars when I talk about Doing Print Happily, to which I add, Doing Print Passionately, as I show these pages from recent print editions celebrating local sports: baseball and hockey.
Greg Manifold, Design Director of The Post, had this to say:
Thanks for all the kind words. A lot of great journalism in today’s newspaper. The credit really rests with our amazing visual journalists, reporters and editors.
My hat off to Greg and his design team. And to the editors who advance our craft digitally, while saluting print in such an effective and celebratory way.