SPD.ORG: The Process

09.24.08posted by
Scott Dadich

Part 27: Wrapping Up

OK, now we are entering the truly insane and hard-to-chronicle stage. We've got the layout done and you've seen how we look at color proofs for the photos and design. You've seen the story editor's and researcher's comments on the proof, both of which were forwarded to the copy desk to input. Bob also sent a couple of changes along as well. The copy desk input all of those changes and produced the final proof, which is -- as the name suggests -- our last chance to weigh in with any changes. Story editor John Birdsall, managing editor Jake Young, and Jason all took one last look at this version and made their final adjustments, and then ran those tweaks past one another before collecting and inputting them. Mostly this was done over the phone on Saturday, but this exchange will give you a sense of the overall tone. … MORE

Design

09.24.08posted by
Scott Dadich

Part 26: The Final Layout

Now that the back-and-forth with the hed and dek had subsided (settling on The Kaufman Paradox), I looked to making my final moves with the layout. Normally, I'd like more time to consider a design more carefully, but we had to make do with the remaining time we had. I took into consideration the pacing of the November feature well and the positioning of this story at the end of the magazine. It was definitely calling for a more impactful typographic hit since the well lacked a forceful piece of design done with type only, let alone big type. True, it's a cliché with designers, the "just make the type huge" move, but in this case, I felt like it was warranted. So I made the headline larger and the dek a bit smaller, looking for awkwardness in the way I ragged the copy.
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Editing

09.23.08posted by
Scott Dadich

Part 25: Factcheck

From researcher Rachel Swaby:

My job is to guard the facts, to double-check every statement and make sure no mistakes slip through. I started working on this after receiving Bob's edit, feeding the writer and editor a stream of updates and corrections throughout the process.

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Editing

09.23.08posted by
Scott Dadich

Part 24: The Headline

Generally speaking, the task of writing the headline (or "hed") and subhead (or "dek") falls to our display-copy team of executive editor Bob Cohn, managing editor Jake Young, plus story editors Sarah Fallon and Jon Eilenberg. This time, though, a number of us weren't satisfied with "Puzzle Master," the headline that made it into the layout. Nancy and Jason asked Bob and Jake if we could come up with some alternatives. This is the conversation that followed. By the end, everyone was pretty much signed off, although the dek continued to get tweaked on the final proof.
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Editing

09.20.08posted by
Scott Dadich

Part 23: The Scrub

So now we've been through a first edit, a top edit, and a copy edit. Chris Anderson has read it through and given Jason and Nancy the thumbs-up (whew!). But we're not done yet. After the layout is finished and approved, the story editor fits it -- cuts or (rarely) stretches to fit the allotted space--and sends it on to the "scrub" editor, whose job is to continue polishing, look for any logic errors or reporting holes, identify structural issues, and so on. Here's the scrub edit for this story, below; scrub editor John Birdsall's comments are in blue ink, and Nancy's and Jason's responses are in red. … MORE

Design

09.19.08posted by
Scott Dadich

Part 22: "The Wrong Theory"

After my disastrous presentation to Chris, I slunk back into work on Tuesday and tried a new tact. I figured I would go completely stark, something strange and awkward. I received a new headline: "Charlie Kaufman, The Director's Cut" and started to play. I threw together a secondary spread, just to have something to work backward from. It looked like this:… MORE

Controversy

09.19.08posted by
Scott Dadich

Part 21: Showing the Layout

It's been a crazy week.

We're doing a huge (18-page) infographic as our November cover story and that's taken a sizeable bite out of my time these past few days--so apologies for the lack of updates these past few days. But on September 15, I showed this version of the layout to Bob, Nancy, Jason, Anna and Wyatt. This meeting is called "Presentation" on our tracking sheet; it's typically a point when Wyatt and I are reasonably sure of the design direction--we have a working hed and dek--and live photo selects are placed in a layout.
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Photography

09.19.08posted by
Scott Dadich