Update 1: Hong Kong, 10:26, August 8: To be updated as more pages covering the Mars landing are included
TAKEAWAY: For me it is always a fun exercise to look at the coverage of an important event, such as this week’s landing of a NASA rover on Mars. Take a look at how various newspapers from around the world displayed the news on their front page: some bigger, others smaller, but, nonetheless, giving this incredible technological feat of interest to so many readers its worth.
Courtesy of http://jalopnik.com/5931724/live-from-nasa-blogging-the-curiosity-mars-rover-landing
Curiosity can be expensive, as some already know. In this case of the NASA Curiosity, the rover which landed in Mars this week, it cost about $2.6 billion, to be exact.
But, what an amazing happening: President Obama has called it “an unprecedented technological feat”.
This Curiosity will continue to satisfy our own curiosity about Mars for weeks and months to come, say the scientists who are directly involved. Curisoity is already transmitting images back to Earth after traveling hundreds of millions of miles through space to explore the red planet. It is even sending Twitter messages. Will a Facebook page be far behind?
And in the trivia department: did you know that there is a penny—-yes, a coin, a lucky penny—on board? NASA has revealed that the penny is the key to ensuring the Curiosity rover can see clearly.
It is always interesting to me how different newspapers globally play such a story. To my disappointment, the South China Morning Post, here in Hong Kong, where I work this week, did not display the news on Page One. Obviously, the SCMP’s target is primarily Hong Kong and China, although I still think it deserved a spot in one of the promos.
Following is a selection of front pages from around the world showcasing the Mars landing story. We will update the post and add more pages as they become available. If your front page did something interesting with the story, please do send it to me at mario@garcia-media.com
Global front pages and the NASA Mars landing
Taiwan, Apple
Austria, Kleine Zeitung
Brazil: Diario do Comercio
France, Liberation
Argentina: Clarin
United Arab Emirates, Gulf News
Denmark, Politiken
United States: Florida Today
Colombia: El Colombiano
Pakistan, Daily Jang
Spain, Diario de Sevilla
Spain, ARA (Barcelona)
Italy: Il Giornale de Vicenza
….meanwhile, in London…..
The Times of London
We could not resist including this double page wrap around from The Times of London. The Mars landing did not make it on its cover, but the Olympic story of the day, and an important one for the Brits, their equestrian team gave way to a beautifully elegant front page display. Great Britain’s equestrian team won a dramatic showjumping gold after jump-off against Holland.
Of interest today:
– USA: The New York Times Reports a Digital Success Story
http://allthingsd.com/20120806/the-new-york-times-reports-a-digital-success-story/
First paragraph:
The New York Times’ pay wall, long debated in and outside of the company, now looks like a bona fide success.
– Political advertising accounts for revenue gains at Scripps’ TV stations, but down at newspapers
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/184219/revenue-way-up-at-scripps-tv-stations-down-at-its-newspapers/
First paragraph:
Political advertising partly accounted for a 52 percent gain in television revenue in the second quarter compared to the year before, the E.W. Scripps Company announced in its earnings report Tuesday. Revenues at Scripps’ newspapers were down 4.7 percent over the second quarter of 2011. Expenses, including the cost of acquiring McGraw-Hill’s television stations at the end of 2011, were up 8.1 percent.
The iPad Design Lab: Storytelling in the Age of the Tablet
Video walkthrough of the iPad prototype of iPad Design Lab
Mario Garcia’s upcoming speaking engagements:
WAN-IFRA World Editors Forum, Kiev, Ukraine, Sept. 2-5
http://www.wan-ifra.org/events/64th-world-newspaper-congress-19th-world-editors-forum
Cumbre Mundial de Diseño en Prensa 2012: Mexico City; September 24-26
http://www.cmdprensa.com/mx2012/
SND (Society of News Design) Cleveland; Oct. 11-13
http://cle.snd.org/