YOU win some, you lose some. I’ve never been that good at pun headlines but this column was crying out for a touch of LOLcat. It was nixed on the grounds that the average newspaper reader wouldn’t get it because the average newspaper reader is about 98, or something. One bright note: it’s going to be used when the column goes online as the website’s demographic is younger.

The background: the Pasadena Sun ran a story claiming the cheeseburger was invented in the city because apparently Americans care about that sort of thing. Thanks to the magic of the interwebs, the story […]

Pic by @jamiecraven. In case you’re wondering, the designer’s put “herey herey” as it contains an ascender (the h) and a descender (the y) and so shows the leading, the gaps between the lines of type. Back in my QuarkXpress days I used “dedy dedy”. Oh, memories…

OOPS. Looks like there’s one Guardian sub or designer who’ll be called in for a meeting. As a production journalist I’ve got every sympathy with him/her; errors like this are easy to make, especially when you’re rushed. I’ve been responsible for sending a page with “Stick a caption in here please” under a sports […]

WHEN you wake up at 7am to hear the newscaster on TV say the words “state of emergency” and “Pasadena” in the same sentence, you know you’re going to be ripping up the front page you designed the night before. Normally this would throw me into a paroxysm of “Oh shit I just did that page,” but this kind of breaking news I love — a solid story that affects a huge area, comes with tons of really good photos and, best of all, it’s not a bloody city council story.

So, showing the kind of initiative not seen since I last did the […]

Me holding the Burbank Leader’s General Excellence award. Photo by Scott Smeltzer

I ATTENDED my first California Newspaper Publishers’ Association awards lunch this afternoon, and it might have helped if we’d been on time (oops). Blame the traffic, blame the useless valet parking…

Anyway, about five minutes after taking our seats my first-prize-winning Burbank Leader cover was projected on the 10-foot high screen. It’s fantastic to have my work be rewarded, and it’s such a validation to know that it’s not just my boss who thinks I’m doing a great job — so do a bunch of people who don’t […]

Yes, my handwriting is terrible. Thanks for noticing.

IT’S CNPA time again so tonight I spent a relaxing hour or so rooting around in the morgue (so called because it’s full of dead trees) looking for papers I could submit. I’m entering both papers in three categories — general excellence, page layout & design, and front page. Last year I won four awards (one first, one second and two blue ribbons) and that was with the shitty old design. All the entries this year sport the new Antenna – based layout so I’m hoping to clean […]

I WON the TCN North Editor’s Award for the redesign of the papers I did back in August to September. I think it was August to September, I’ve kind of tried to block it from my mind. Anyway, I got a nice shiny certificate (pictured above) and $1,000 (not pictured above and already spent on a wide-angle lens). So I’d like to thank my editor Dan for letting me loose on the paper and Mike and Hamlet for taking up the slack when I was off doing the redesign. Right, I’m off to […]

THE results are in for the 2009 California Newspaper Publisher’s Association and bugger me, I’ve won four awards.

I got first for front page layout and second for page layout and design (broadsheet) for the Burbank Leader, and blue ribbons (ie third) for front page layout and page layout and design (broadsheet) for the Glendale News-Press.

Amazingly, the pages won even with the crappy old design. I can’t wait til the redesigned ones are entered for judging next year.

The scribes did pretty well, too, and overall our papers picked up 10 awards. We’re going out for drinks to celebrate tomorrow night and no […]

…BUT as I’m shitting myself trying to get the bloody Burbank Leader review of the year stuff done, you’ll have to make do with a photo of Lenin and a rather effeminate Jabba The […]

IT’S 7.28pm on Christmas Eve and I’m alone in the office designing Saturday’s paper to help my good friend and colleague Mike have an easier Christmas Day. It’s always odd to be on my own in the office; there’s always something ticking or creaking to make me think I’m not alone, or a sudden burst of static from the police scanner to scare the shit out of me. At least I don’t smoke any more, so the chances of me becoming locked out/followed back in by homeless people/burning the place down are gone.

And, now I think about it, creepy […]