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Readers want you to decide

December 20, 2017 By Ed Henninger 2 Comments

12.21.17: Readers want you to decide

AS AN EDITOR and designer, you’re faced with many decisions–in each issue.

Do I play this photo…or that one? What’s my lead story? Should I jump that piece on the school levy? Have I overplayed/underplayed that article on the Christmas parade? Did I do justice to the photos of the high school scholarship winners?

Yes, many decisions, but it’s your job to make them.

Don’t waste your time second-guessing yourself, asking over and over again if you did the right thing. Make your best decision, given your experience and your effort to be fair, balanced and a servant of your readership.

Your readers expect you to make those decisions. They want you to decide what the best story is…what the best photo is. They trust your judgment. They respect you. They want you to decide.

And…they’ll occasionally disagree with a decision you’ve made.

It’s OK. That’s how it works.

From more than 50 years ago, the words of Sgt. Klein come back to me from a sweltering summer day at ROTC camp.

“Decide!” he said. “Decide right…or decide wrong. But, dammit, decide!”

Yes. That’s how it works.

Filed Under: Helpful Hints Tagged With: decisions, Henninger Helpful Hint, top photo, top story

Lead me on

March 15, 2017 By Ed Henninger Leave a Comment

 03.16.17: Lead me on

 

YOUR LEAD HEADLINE should always be at the top of the page.

Right?

Wrong!

Use headline hierarchy details—in this case, size, weight and number of lines—to indicate to readers what the lead news story is on your front page.

I don’t believe any reader wouldn’t know where to go to read the top story of this issue…even with the banner head below the nameplate.

Filed Under: Helpful Hints Tagged With: headline hierarchy, lead headline, top story

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