Comic Strip of the Day

CSotD: How it all works — Inside the editorial process

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Mike Peterson Published: January 24, 2014 1 minute 1 comment

(I began to reply to Dann's comment about "jumps" in regards to this post, but decided that the way newspapers are laid out is of interest to both general readers and cartoonists. So here's an Afternoon Special on the topic.)

Here's the inside view of how the daily grind happens at newspapers:

Step one in laying out the paper is that you get the budget, which is the general breakdown of news/advertising for the day. "General" is the right term: It's pretty vague. Step Two, the dummy, follows hard on and is extremely specific and shows you where the ads fall.

Your goal is to lay the news out around them.

Some pages are always open (that is, free of ads), like the editorial pages. These days, section fronts (A1, B1, etc) are at least consistent if not open: They might have a banner ad across the bottom, but it's the same size every day.

Comic pages, BTW, are often open because they can be laid out well in advance. Some chains now have all the papers in one group buy the same strips and puzzles so they can lay it out once and send copies around. At some papers, this even happens in Third World countries. I wish I were joking.

But however it happens, the comics are laid out in the backshop, not the newsroom. So, for that reason, most editors don't give a rat's ass about the comics page: They don't have to deal with it. It just happens automatically. There's no difference between the comics page and a full page ad for a mattress company. They don't have to think about it.

Except when some $#^%#$ writes in because they canceled Mary Worth.

So — duh! — don't cancel Mary Worth. 

Beyond that, you'll have some pages that are fairly consistent.

At some papers, for instance, A2 may always have a large ad with a single column of copy (news) running down the left-hand edge and about a three-inch deep strip of copy across the top.

Now, you could, indeed, jump an A1 story to that second page, with its single vertical and truncated horizontal news hole, but you're still luring people into the tent at that stage.

Better to run a column of news briefs vertically and some kind of a "Getta load of that!" story across the top.

Giant snake, Justin Bieber, whatever. Whatever promises to become viral.

The next few pages are where you continue to spread your wares out on the carpet to attract the buyers. And to mangle the analogy, the last couple pages of the section are for the carpet remnants.

At a small paper, the editorial page(s) may be the divider between new, significant stories and the part that consists of jumps and nonessential stuff (i.e., fillers). 

But, in any case, the same idea goes in every section: Cool stuff leads, while the jumps and the oddball stuff go in the back. 

Though the back page may also be a place for potentially viral features. Or full-page ads, if anyone can get one. If you think this is confusing, you should be on deadline.

Most section fronts have a relatively predictable layout, maybe three variations of pretty much the same thing, barring a disaster, local election or hometown Super Bowl win.

So, as a section editor, I'm going to choose my top four or five stories and start the game of Editorial Tetris.

If I've got more than one person working on the section — and most papers would — I'll confer or call out "Jumps to A7 and A9," for instance.

Now the other pages can be laid out, knowing that those two pages will be done last. That's where the real Tetris happens, and then, once all the pieces are in place, we fill the rest with the ferry accident in the Philippines or the dog who found his way home in Idaho.

The reason you won't jump a story from A to C is that (A) someone else is laying out C and (B) it's happening at a completely other time — features and business are often laid out by dinner time, the A section might not close until 10 p.m, and sports is only there for the purpose of annoying the pressmen and may hold things up until 11 or later, depending on the importance of a night game.

If you have a four-section paper, you'll notice that A and C have the same number of pages, and so do B and D. It ain't magic, it's the way the presses run, cut and fold.

And, for that matter, the features and business sections may be printed before news and sports have even been laid out.

In fact, the Sunday features and business sections are often printed Friday night so that the Saturday night crew can concentrate on the "live sections."

So now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

(Jack Ohman, you will live forever)