The first page of a newspaper holds more influence than consumers may realize. They are considered to be the first impression of that company and have to stand out amongst their hundreds of competitors at newsstands, check-out lines, and digitally. Because of this, companies put a great deal of effort into crafting that first page. I chose to compare first page layouts of two national newspapers, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Daily News.
Both were printed on the same day, and share one featured event. However, both were printed extremely differently.
Looking at the front page of The Wall Street Journal, I am overwhelmed a bit with the amount of news presented. The paper creates a sophisticated ambiance, there is minimal use of color and which is kept strictly to the photos, giving more emphasis to them. The photos express a lot of emotion and attract onlookers to want to know more about the story behind them. The use of text gives this feeling that there is a lot going on that should a potential reader choose to pass up on the opportunity to pick up the paper they could be missing vital information. There is also variance in the headlines. Some are of the titles are larger and a thicker outline was used when bolding the title. These seem to appear mostly on the updates of larger ongoing narratives that have been at forefront of the public's minds. While reading an older article by the media outlet Poynter called "Newspaper designers describe front page techniques for capturing bin Laden’s death," they discussed the techniques used by newspapers after the death of bin Laden, but much of these strategies still applied to the major events documented by sources today. According to the author, many articles will focus on using a bold headline or a lot of text to the text "address questions that people were likely to ask the second day", or even during months-long events like the COVID-19 outbreak.
On the other hand, The New York Daily News has a very different approach to its front page. Known for styling their newspaper in a tabloid format they gave all the attention to two of what they consider to be top stories. They use large letters and extravagant titles and bold colors such as yellow and red. The facial expressions of the individuals in the photos are depicted as aggressive giving a serious and scandalous tone that requires immediate attention to the newspaper. All the colors in both the lettering, banners, and photographs immediately draw the attention and interests of potential readers.
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Newspaper designers describe front page techniques for capturing bin Laden’s death
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