The new Skiff hits the stands

The new tabloid TCU Daily Skiff launched today.

The students did a great job of putting together a 32-page first day edition.

Why not take a few minutes and read through the premiere issue?
































To download the pdf, click on this link:

Skiff Archives


To see the new Skiff website, click on this link:

TCU Daily Skiff

Just before the launch

Phil Record leads a boot camp class on ethics.




























Editors work with reporters on stories for the first day of the new tabloid Skiff.
















Julie and Libby look over one of the 32 pages to be published.


























Julie works on the page introducing Skiff editors to the readers.
























New tabletop "grab" racks for the Skiff.













The new rack cards not only promote the Skiff when all the copies have been taken but also serves as a support for the copy that slips into the acrylic holder at the top of the rack.

One more critique

Michael Tribble, Design and Graphics Director of The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio, was kind enough to do a thorough critique of the redesign. I'll use many of his thoughts and those of Tim and Mario troughout the semester to help us capitalize on the momentum of our new product.
Once again, I was looking for a pure critique for the prototype and he had no insight into any limitations the students had...


First impression
Outside of the cover illustration, the approach of the design is very traditional. The move from broadsheet (I haven’t seen a copy of The Skiff in 10 years) to tabloid did little to break new ground. The reinvention is seen only in the size of the product, which makes me wonder why the move was made, outside of possible cost-cutting measures. Since readers use tabloids differently than they would a broadsheet (usually punchier and more adventurous compared to stogy and traditional), you must respond by offering a product that has a completely different personality than what you offered in the broadsheet version. The team should investigate how stories were told in the broadsheet form and how they can use the new space in a more creative way. And at the very beginning point focus on how the paper not only informs and entertains, but also how it engages readers.

Critique
First off, the edition I saw had no consistent grid from page to page, or on the covers. This made the entire issue seem inconsistent and unstructured. Remember in design, grid is God. I suggest you invent a strong grid structure (both horizontally
and vertically) for all your pages and stick to it religiously. Also, the gutters between columns were a bit too wide, which gave the paper a feeling of being light and unimportant.

Your section toppers are a bit static and don’t relay much information. Seems there could be a more creative approach to these that could offer more information, save some space or give the paper more personality. The negative space offers very little relief here.

The body copy needs tighter tracking and an adjustment to the hyphenation tables. The gaps in spacing between both letters and words make the type tough to read in spots. I’d suggest looking at tightening up your leading as well. They type just seems too airy, which can make it tiring to read. This also adds to the light feeling I mentioned above.

But even though there was a feeling of lightness inside the section, the pages themselves are extremely type heavy. There was very little relief outside of the advertisements. Seems there could be a way to balance the amount of real estate spent on the size of cover art with amount of space used for art inside the section. Right now there is very little contrast. And for a student newspaper, there seemed to be very few images representative of student life (I counted the sports image and the bounty hunter shot. There were also six mug shots and one portrait).

Not a fan of the label headlines. They don’t relay a whole lot of information and because they introduce even more white space, they add to the light feeling I talked about earlier. Love, love, love the crossword and other games. Gives the readers another reason to pick you up and pass the time. You should highlight that more as a selling point.

I like the creativity of the main illustration. But in general, the covers seem to be a bit disorganized. As far as your use of typography, I’d stick with a simple style of headline, make them all centered or flush-left (preferred) and don’t change weights and color to grab attention. Pick one treatment and go strong with it. And even wide-open canvases like these covers can benefit from a tightly followed grid. Break the page into a grid vertically and horizontally and make your illustrations, headlines and copy blocks work within it. It’ll make for much cleaner pages.

Also, if the paper’s philosophy is to “sell” one big story on the covers, I’d suggest giving the secondary elements more pop. Right now the elements are almost too secondary. If readers don’t care for the main story tease, then there’s not much excitement there to get them to see if there’s something inside worth their time. And I’m not sure why you have these both at the top and at the bottom. There’s probably a better solution here to get them in the same space since they do the same job.

Overall
The paper has a good, basic organization, but is in need some sizzle. There are too many other outlets competing for eyeballs to remain traditional in structure and storytelling. This is your chance to blow the doors off. Newspapers are about ideas and keeping you audience’s attention means publishing good ideas. After graduation, members of your staff will rarely get the type of opportunity you have now to be smart, innovate and challenge yourselves. And above all else, this should be the most fun you’ll ever have making a newspaper. Planning is the key.

Dr. Mario Garcia critiques the new Skiff design

Dr. Mario R. Garcia was kind enough to look over the Skiff prototype and send us his impression.

Dr. Garcia is the premiere authority on communication design and he and his company, Garcia Media, have redesigned hundreds of websites, newspapers and magazines.



As with other professionals who critiqued the new tabloid, he was not aware of time constraints, migration of existing styles, the the goal to create the prototype as a template for fall content or number of students working. His reaction to the prototype is straightforward as if he was seeing a complete product offered to the reader.

He was very pleased that students were given the opportunity to undertake an effort like this.

His comments:

"... On the positive side, the tabloid format will be more popular with students, for sure; it is more manageable and a favorite, especially with younger readers.

I have to say that the (a spring Skiff pdf was sent for comparison) broadsheet front page was a nicer looking product, in its classic style, than the tabloid version.

Don't take me wrong, the students have done a good job of organizing things in the tab, but I do feel that it lacks visual impact.

I would prefer flush left headlines, and not these escalated headlines that are neither centered nor flushed left; overall, the headers for Sports, etc. are plain, and more to be found on a broadsheet than a tabloid.

There is hardly any interesting use of color.

Inside pages are boring and represent a style of newspaper design that is circa 1990s. I would expect students to be more creative and innovative.

This, although well laid out, is NOT designed at all.

If I were in charge, I would send the students back to mobilize their creative instincts and to present something that is more 2015 and less 1992.

God, I hope I was not too harsh, but, to be honest, we need to see more adventure..."

A running criticism I hear and read from many professionals and academics is the conservative approach students take to problem-solving. There is safety in the familiar. And efficiency in repositioning existing resources.

Dr. Garcia's criticism falls directly into that line of thought.

Knowing the students involved, I believe that if they had the time to really dig into the assignment as a true redesign they might have generated something much more visually stunning. But pushing through a changeover like this in 6 weeks while students were taking summer courses allows only so many marathon sessions on the actual redesign.

The goals established for the students were met.

But the stage is set for the students to stretch beyond those goals.

Dr. Garcia has thrown a valid challenge down for the Skiff staff to take up.

They must push themselves to build an engaging, vigorous and creative product each day for their readers. Over a few weeks they will better understand the tools they need to use and the strategy to adopt in order to bring their tabloid to the level of success of their old broadsheet.
More time, more planning, more hands and heads involved in the process will be assets to be utilized aggressively.

Will they respond to the challenge?

I know they will.

Especially since I will send some of the fall issues out for the pros to critique once again.

Response to Tim Harrower's critique

I’ve had several folks take odds with Tim Harrower’s critique of the Skiff redesign.

I agree with their comments, but I was perhaps unfair to publish Tim’s text without informing folks that I gave all the people who were critiquing the prototype as little as background on the project as possible.

I was searching for frank, honest assessment of the design and presentation of content.

If reviewers knew that this was a project to migrate basic style, set the stage for fall production, had limited staffing for the project and was done on a part-time basis over 6 weeks I would be concerned they would soften their criticism.

Tim's reaction is much like our readers.

The only thing they focus on is what they have in their hands at the moment.

The reader doesn’t care what your deadline was, how much time it took to produce something, if you are understaffed or had a migraine at the Mac while editing a story.

If the content and presentation fill the reader’s needs, the reader is happy.

If the content and presentation doesn’t fill the reader’s needs, she will turn the page or dump the paper and move on to the TV or iPhone to find what she wants.

So Tim’s critique is as solid and valuable as the opinion of any one reader.
Maybe a little bit more because he knows our industry.

Some responses to his critique support his comments on too much advertising, a need for tighter, shorter stories and a presence of roundups or briefs.

One comment in particular, from our director, John Lumpkin, does give objection to Tim’s dislike of the big photos:

“I disagree with the big illustrations on the covers being a waste of space.
Done correctly, they are a profoundly different and compelling way to tell a story. How many gray words would it have taken to make the point of the domino graphic about NCAA realignment?”

Good point.

And student feedback moves in direction of really enjoying the big picture on the front.

New racks rock the campus

The new racks our Skiff Business Manager Bitsy Faulk ordered are making their way onto campus.

These modular purple racks blow our old white, composite-wood boxes away.

They have a much more contemporary feel.

The clear plexi area at the top offers a great spot for promotional material such as that day's issue or a special rack card.

The two shelves allow us to place the Skiff issues on the top shelf and the Image magazines on the bottom shelf.

New displays for the new product.

A nice way to build momentum for the August launch.

Feedback from the pros

I sent out pdfs of the Skiff prototype to folks in the news and academic fields and requested feedback.

I had hoped to gather enough material to use for sessions during the Skiff boot camps in August.There is a majority of support and praise for the changeover and general design and layout but what I was hoping for was constructive criticism to propel the content and mission of the newspaper forward.

The redesign sets only the foundation, the language of the paper. It is up to the students to build something great upon it, to create engaging stories and display with the language.
A few responses are starting to trickle in.

The few professionals who have responded went right for points that I believe are very valuable for the staff to consider as they move towards launching the new design.

The first is from Tim Harrower.

Tim’ s books, The Newspaper Designer's Handbook and Inside Reporting are popular not only as handbooks for working journalists but also as textbooks.

He’s been an editor, designer and now consults on print and online design, teaches journalism and, according to his website, runs a dog-and-frog ranch deep in the Oregon woods.

Two of the biggest points of Tim’s critique:

“You've got 12 pages. Half of those are ads. That leaves 6 pages for actual news. Right?
And of those 6 pages, you're blowing off TWO of them -- the front & back cover -- for big photos? One-third of your available space for images that may or may not deserve big play? That do almost no heavy lifting, journalistically speaking?

Big mistake.

Your real estate is too precious, and in too short a supply, to pretend you're a magazine with loads of interior space -- and with enough art and photo talent to make this concept sustainable week after week.

I counted up the actual story modules (for news and opinion) in this prototype. Fourteen items. That's all. (Not even any news or sports briefs, either.)

You may not realize it, but you've simply GOT to give readers more traffic than that. You're moving in slow motion at EXACTLY the moment in time when you should be accelerating the traffic flow. One thing I know about young, impatient readers: they want as much volume and variety as you can possibly deliver.

… And that 50/50 ad ratio?

Listen, I was in Texas a few years ago, speaking to a convention of shopper editors. You know, those tabloids you see stacked at supermarket entrances, with names like Nickel Ads and Coupon Clipper?

I'd never really paid attention to shoppers before that. In fact, I didn't even know how to explain the difference between a newspaper and a shopper. So I wrote my own definition:
A newspaper is where you put ads below your news stories. A shopper is where you find news stories to plug the holes around your ads.

You're creating a shopper. “

Once the printed prototype was reviewed, most of the folks here realized that a 50/50 ratio is unrealistic and advertising targets will be adjusted.

This will allow the story count to rise.Striking a good balance between content and display on the front and back covers is essential for the paper’s success.

TCU students have loved the big photos but Tim makes a good point.

Producing art like that on a daily basis is stressful and most often unsuccessful. More prudent planning and opening up the covers, especially the back, to more story presence make sense. Lack of briefs and roundups, which consistently pop up in surveys as reader favorites, can be addressed once editors arrive for boot camp.

Visit Tim's site for great tips and free pdfs on multimedia, editing, design and more:

http://www.timharrower.com/index.html