Tony
Sutton has written on issues relating to journalism,
design and typography for many industry publications, including
Design, the magazine
for the international Society For
News Design (of which he was editor for five years); NineOnTen,
Ragged Right, Quill, The Editor, The American Editor, Digital
Imaging & Publishing (South Africa), Rhodes Journalism Review
(South Africa), DTP (Sweden), Aviserat (Sweden). The following
are among his favourites.
Say,
Has Anyone Seen My Editor?
It ’s 9.30 on a Saturday evening
in early November. I should be enjoying dinner with Jools; but,
instead, I ’m in my studio feeling slightly nervous. I
’m on deadline, producing a tabloid for a pal, Lesley Riddoch,
who’s 3,000 miles away on Skye, a tiny island off the Scottish
coast. But a huge batch of electronic copy and photographs haven’t
arrived, I lost contact with Les two days ago, and I’m
increasingly convinced that the missing stuff ’s never
going to arrive . . .
Irish
Ayes: A close Look At The Redesign Of The Ulster Herald
Heard the one about the Irishman who went into the newsagent’s
to buy a copy of his local weekly paper? He couldn’t find
one anywhere, so he barked at the assistant, “Where’s
my Herald?” She pointed wearily to the pile directly in
front of him. “Oh, I didn’t recognize it; it looks
so different,” he murmered as he handed over his cash .
. .
Worldwide:
Classic Type With A 'Breasty' Quality
Readers are aware that we change the headline faces in each
issue of Design magazine. With this issue we've gone further:
every bit of editorial type in this issue (except cover blurbs)
is set in a single typeface – Worldwide. The typeface was
born when I asked Nick Shinn to produce a single weight headline
face with two weights of text for the Worldwoman project . .
.
Don’t
Redesign … Redefine
For the past decade, the antidote for declining newspaper circulation
has been simple - redesign!!! No problem: Appoint an art director,
produce colorful graphics, change the typefaces and, z-o-o-o-o-m,
away we go into the future! Unfortunately, it didn’t work.
Desperate publishers are now seeking a new solution, a panacea
to halt the decline and help their newspapers climb out of the
doldrums . . .
How
To Get More News Into Less Space
The task seems straightforward enough. Newsprint prices have
rocketed since the beginning of the year. They’re going
up again very soon and maybe there’ll be another increase
before the end of the year. That means the newshole on almost
every newspaper is going to shrink as publishers battle to
balance their books. So, once again, editors are being told
to find ways to squeeze more copy into less space . . .
The
Perils Of Pagination
Way back in the good old days of hot-metal typesetting, the
production of newspaper pages presented few problems for journalists.
They didn’t do it . . .
A
Type For All Seasons
One of the finest pieces of typographic advice I received
as a young journalist came from Walter Partridge, an eminent
British newspaperman of the early 1960s, who said immaculate
spacing was far more important than the actual typeface used
for newspaper headlines . . .
Lessons
From The Alternative Press
I’m having a coffee with Phil Vassell, an editor pal.
And he’s got problems. There’s a story that he wants
to run, but there’ll be trouble if he does. Some of his
readers will be upset and he’ll have difficulties with
those blue chip advertisers he’s been wooing . . .
