(Editor’s note: The Readers’ Advocate’s role is to address the concerns of readers on a variety of matters, including the fairness of stories, what The Item covers, stories that may have been missed, and the emphasis put on certain stories but perhaps not on others. It is written by Jo Sullivan, a retired educator who is not a member of The Item staff and is not being paid. These commentaries will appear periodically, on no set schedule.)
The power of graphic design in a newspaper is significant and can be profound, especially on the front page. According to Wikipedia, “Graphics can be functional or artistic.” They can be both. In the case of The Item, the work of the graphic design team is arresting and effective.
There are four graphics staff members listed in The Item masthead: Trevor Andreozzi, Vanessa Leroy, Jakob Menendez and Edwin Peralta, Jr., who work closely with the news and editorial teams and publisher Ted Grant.
In the last few months, there have been many striking front pages. As I noted previously, the July 26 issue highlighted the Black Lives Matter mural on Essex Street in downtown Lynn with aerial photos of the murals.
Whether driving or walking by Lynn City Hall, one does not get the full effect of the mural. Those photos provided a powerful impact.
Several front-page graphics were COVID-19-related. On August 18, The Item joined other newspapers to encourage vaccinations with “Face it, we have one shot at beating Covid-19: You.”
This front page displayed 24 photographs of masked individuals, with news and opinion pieces arranged around them. The visual was memorable. When the state recently established a mask mandate in schools, the center of the August 24 front page had a large photo of a typical blue disposable mask, enlarged, with the headline, “Mask Mandate Expands.”
These headlines with graphics are compelling and call the reader’s attention to important events, community concerns, and actions.
Considering these recent front pages, I thought about what would be next. After a week of powerful 9/11 remembrances, featuring memorial events, documentaries, and historical details both known and new to audiences, I wondered how such a sensitive anniversary would be presented.
With a photo of the twin towers filling the Sept. 11 front page as background for the headline “Where Were You?” reader remembrances began on page 1 and continued on pages 6 and 7.
The large number — more than 100 — responses printed were reader recollections about where they were when the planes hit the World Trade Center and Pentagon and crashed in Pennsylvania.
The impact of so many comments on pages 6 and 7 was impressive as printed. Those responses, however, were so hard to read that, even with my reading glasses and a magnifying glass, I could not read them and gave up. Maybe younger readers with better eyesight could, or perhaps the visual effect was enough.
Recently, publisher Ted Grant and News Editor Gayla Cawley appeared on the local cable show, “The American Dream” with Lynn attorney Jim Carrigan.
In that interview, Grant noted that former publisher Peter Gamage had advised him to always put something on the front page “to make me smile.”
Because Cawley and Grant said that was a goal of theirs, I began to pay attention and to look for the placement of these types of articles. Just this month, the following stories were examples from 10 that appeared on the front page:
- Hurricane Ida winds blow Louisiana pets to Salem animal shelter.
- Candidate delivers for Lynn boy (replacement of a stolen bike).
- Swampscott gives peace (and pinwheels) a chance.
During the pandemic, with the challenges of unemployment or the withdrawal from Afghanistan, these types of stories are welcome.
Because of the commitment of The Item to educating and advocating about the COVID-19 pandemic and its treatment, it was disappointing on Sept. 16, when the Look! section on page A8 included a photo of Nicki Minaj.
It accompanied an article on Dr. Anthony Fauci’s response to Minaj’s social media post about vaccine side effects. Using her photo instead of Fauci’s amplified disinformation and undermined Item efforts to inform the public about COVID-19.
These Item front pages are eye-catching. Today we have the online version of the Item and their social media. In a way, it’s too bad we no longer buy our papers from a newsstand that grabs our attention with a bold and clever front page. Instead, most of us wait for our daily paper to see what special focus will draw us in with the front page…and make us smile.
Note: A new documentary, “Storm Lake,” about the life and significance of a small-town newspaper will air on the PBS Independent Lens series on Nov. 15. According to the PBS website, the film asks, “Does American democracy survive without the backbone of independent local journalism?” Storm Lake is in Iowa, but the importance of local journalism applies to The Item as well.
(Send your comments to ReaderAdvocate@ comcast.net.)
