WHAT'S NEXT: INNOVATIONS IN NEWSPAPERS

Luis Vilches has designed three great pages in The Virginian-Pilot today.

The paper asked its readers to send pictures of costumed pets and the editors selected a few animals to came to the newsroom and the result is this portfolio of amazing pictures by intern photographer Joy Lewis.

Good idea, great pictures, smart captions and better design.

Pets sell.

And good design too!

Luis is another young Spanish designer working in the United States.

His award-winning portfolio shows that his passion for journalism is equal to or greater than his design skills.

Yesterday, Erik Prince the founder and CEO of the controversial Blackwater USA, spoke to the U.S. Congress.

For four hours, he was grilled by the politicians and his performance was very impressive.

Erik Prince -says its entry in Wikipedia- is noted for disliking having his photo taken and distributed; he often uses his hands to shield himself from photographers.

While attending a technology conference in North Carolina, he was visibly uncomfortable when photographed on stage and officials asked that the images not be published.

He also frequently turns down interview requests.

Some have claimed that this is due to fear of terrorist reprisals for his role in creating Blackwater USA.

Watch here the video of this fasciating hearing on private security contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

(Picture by Chris Curry/The Virginian-Pilot)

As you know, the launch of the new design of The Virginian-Pilot was done during the Sail Virginia celebration.

The sail event, running June 7 to 11, featured a fleet of more than 50 tall ships, military and character vessels from the United States, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, England, France, Germany, India, the Netherlands and Uruguay.

This morning I went to see the blessing of the Sail Virginia fleet.

Their departure caps a six-day event, Norfolk’s contribution to celebrations of the 400th anniversary of the English landing at Jamestown.

I was able to take some pictures of the Capitan Miranda, a 205-foot staysail schooner that is the sail training vessel of Uruguay’s navy.

Built in 1930 in Spain, it originally served as a hydrographic vessel.

In 1978, it was rededicated as a sail vessel for the Uruguayan navy, teaching newly graduated midshipmen to apply the knowledge acquired at the Naval Academy.

The ship is named in honor of Capt. Francisco P. Miranda (1869-1925), a Uruguayan naval officer who became his country’s navy secretary.

The ship made me think about this small but great country.

INNOVATION has great friends in Uruguay, among them Daniel Scheck, the driving-force behind El Pais of Montevideo.

More than 20 yerars ago, Ricardo Peirano, now publisher of El Observador, and Francisco Rodriguez Folle director of Research, introduced INNOVATION to him.

Daniel had a serious stroke more than two years ago and a few months after I went to Montevideo just to chat with him, his wife, Chocha, and Carola, his daughter and a former student of mine, and thank him because he was one of our first clients in Latin America, and a family friend forever.

Great memories from Uruguay thanks to this beautiful ship and happy sailors.

Well… The Capitan Miranda left after the German barque Gorch Fock, the biggest tall ship at Sail Virginia 2007.

The steel-hulled ship is 266 feet long, without the bowsprit, and 40 feet wide.

More than 11,000 young German sailors have been tested in its rigging since it was built in 1958.

It is named after a German nautical writer, Johann Kinau, who wrote sea stories under the pseudonym ”Gorch Fock.”

He died at sea aboard the cruiser Weisbaden, which was sunk during World War I at the Battle of Jutland in May 1916.

This short video shows its departure from Norfolk under the traditional Godspeed!

Deborah Withey, DME for presentation at The Virginian-Pilot explains today’s big splash in the paper:

“When we finally settled on a launch date, we realized that our weekend design debut would fall smack at the beginning of one of Norfolk’s glorious harborfest events, the Parade of Sail, and this year was being billed as the grandest of all.

“This revelation was exciting as the event granted us the opportunity to jump into the new design with gusto.

“Hampton Roads is a vibrant place where nautical character abounds even on the dullest day…..and in times like this it stirs the stew of creativity a bit quicker.”

See here some of the pages of the new Saturday Virginian-Pilot:

(First picture by John H. Sheally)

A portfolio from the first day of the redesign.

The web site of the paper has today this Q&A section:

Why redesign the paper?
To make the paper bolder, more elegant, easier to use, more inviting and easier to find the news you want. We want to reflect our community in the content and the presentation. We have added dozens of new features to make reading The Pilot a more pleasurable experience and to help you understand more about the world around you.

What’s that new masthead: The Virginian-Pilot?
That’s a restoration of the original masthead that adorned The Pilot for about 100 years. It was changed about 25 years ago. We had the original one redrawn to reflect the 142-year-old legacy of The Pilot and to give the paper’s name a more commanding presence. Compare it to the old masthead and you’ll see that the new one is much more powerful and elegant. By the way, it was custom drawn by a very well known typographer named Jim Parkinson, whose work includes the masthead for Rolling Stone, The Chicago Tribune and Esquire. See more of his work at www.typedesign.com.

You made the type smaller didn’t you?
NO! We have not changed the body copy. It’s the same as the old paper. We don’t want to mess with success.

Did you make the actual paper smaller?
No, we did not.

So what are all these new features you told us about?
Well, for starters we have a page called Co-Pilot, where you pilot The Pilot. This page will appear three days a week and contains nothing but reader-generated content. We want you to be able to contribute to the daily paper and we want you to see yourself in the paper more than you do now. So we created this feature.

Is that some new kind of headline font?
Yes, we have three new headline fonts: Vonnes, our sans serif font; Tidewater, the elegant looking serif font; and Neutraface that is used for the section flags (titles) at the top of each section.

Why isn’t there color on every page?
Our presses won’t allow that. We are currently refurbishing the presses to improve our printing process. That process will take about a year and a half at a cost of $25 million. We still won’t have color on every page, but the paper will be better.

Did the price of the paper go up?
Nope. It is still the best deal on the planet.

Deborah Withey, deputy managing editor for presentation, presents her redesign of The Virginian Pilot:

Good design communicates ideas, but there’s an art to it

It usually hits me when I’m by the Chesapeake Bay.

But yesterday as I drove down a magnolia-lined street, a love of Hampton Roads washed over me.

I arrived exactly three years ago “for the job” as they say, after living in another quite lovely, but far-away place, Wales, in the United Kingdom.

I returned to the U.S. to join The Pilot because it is a newspaper with a tradition of excellence in visual journalism.

My task was not only to carry on that tradition but to grow it, improve it, redesigning the paper for present and future readers.

No small task, but an exciting one.

The first order of business was to align a new design to our content goals, good design is not decoration, each choice we make must be meaningful.

Next came the hardest part how to preserve the personality of The Pilot yet propel it forward making it more stimulating and accessible to both younger and core readers.

My solution was to look to our surroundings for inspiration, to reflect and celebrate what I saw and experienced here.

What’s before you is a design that’s unique to this newspaper and community.

Our color palette comes from the environment we share, in the water that both joins and separates us, in the myriad of greens of both plant and pollen.

Our choice of classic and modern typography is influenced by our rich history, and our eclectic mix of traditional and hip urban architecture.

This creative design will remain organic, driven by the news.

We will not become a templated newspaper where various stories play in the same spot every day, leaving little room for surprise.

Against the trend, we remain primarily black and white.

Our use of color is deliberate.

So yes, the design that will unfold in the days ahead has taken much thought, more than I express to you now.

What I wish for most is that you’ll feel the passion in our work and know that newspapers are indeed very alive, and will continue to be, as long as people appreciate the printed word.

I invite you to grow with us.

Today’s well-designed front page of The Virginian-Pilot, with a great photo, punchy headline and good story is a good example of what is comming on June 6th when the paper will present its full redesign.

The promotion has started with the slogan “readelicious.”

Yesterday, several thousand sailors from the carrier Dwight Eisenhower and three smaller ships arrived in Norfolk Naval Station from an extended, nearly eight-month, deployment fighting wars and securing seas in the Middle East.

My local paper, The Virginian-Pilot, has a very emotional piece in today’s edition.

A very touching story.

With amazing photos.

This paper’s editor is a former photo editor, so the tradition of great photojournalism is alive here, as you can see in this case.

Click here to watch a slideshow.

And here to read the full story written by Louis Hansen and Kate Wiltrout.

Some moving paragraphs:

“Over the past eight months, the aircraft carrier Eisenhower and its sister ships patrolled the waters of the Middle East, sending bomb-laden planes to the skies over Iraq and Afghanistan – and a reminder to Iran of U.S. military muscle.

Wednesday, as families waited for four ships bearing more than 6,000 sailors to return, the accomplishments of the Anzio, Ramage, Mason and Eisenhower seemed irrelevant.

The day’s mission was far more personal: find, and hug, their sailor.

As is Navy tradition, the sailors who’d earned or won the right to the “first kiss” hit the pier soonest, followed by fathers of babies born during the cruise.

“It feels wonderful,” Seaman Ernie Gartung said, cradling his 8-week-old son, Ernest III, for the first time.

Gartung deployed on Valentine’s Day, in the middle of the guided missile cruiser Anzio’s tour and his wife Allison’s pregnancy.

Allison Gartung and her family drove 13 hours from Tennessee this week for the reunion.

“It’s been rough,” she said.

But the sight of her husband on a brilliant May day brightened her spirits.

The afternoon would be turned over to the new dad, she said, and “whatever he wants to do.”

Sarah Campbell had her arms full while waiting for her husband, Chief Petty Officer David Campbell.

Mom held 3-year-old Savannah on one hip and 18-month-old Dawson on the other.

Dawson’s strawberry-blond hair glowed in the sunshine.

“Daddy made me promise to keep it long so he could take him for his first haircut,” Campbell said.

The chief’s homecoming on the Mason also marked a homecoming for Sarah, Savannah and Dawson, who moved back to Virginia Beach a month ago after spending most of the deployment with family in North Carolina and Indiana.

Some spouses and parents held signs to catch their sailor’s eye.

Holly Davis had a poster made to look like a milk carton, with a picture of her husband, Petty Officer 1st Class Brian Davis, and the message, “Missing since 10/3/06. Have you seen OS1 Davis?”

Racquel Schiller, also waiting for the Anzio to arrive, toted a sign with a photo of her fiance in Wild West garb: “On the run since 10.03.06,” it read.

“Wanted for: theft of fiancee’s heart.”

Pictures by Steve Earley and Gary C. Knapp for The Virginian-Pilot.

One with a great picture.

The other with a punchy headline.