Ingredients for a Better Food Section READERS WILL SAY, YUM YUM!
Inquiring minds want to know ... the secrets of the catering stars! This page from the Boston Herald shows ingenuity in illustrating a tough subject. The story wasn't about a particular caterer or a particular food - it was more about the philosophical question, "what makes a good caterer? And what can the average person learn from a smart caterer?" The illustration itself is not only amusing but informative - the "headlines" of the fake tabloid front page give tips that the readers can use at home. [Click to call up larger image. Credit: Gustavo Leon, art director, Boston Herald] Link here to more feature pages from the Boston Herald. This tip sheet is partly based on a workshop presented in Orlando for the Association of Food Writers and Editors. If you have a question or comment on these topics, send it to me here at any time. I'll respond as soon as possible, and consider using your question in a future web posting. Home page: www.ronreason.com (more tips on newspaper design, graphics and editing).		By Ron Reason Not to be republished without permission or recirculated without attribution. Your newspaper's food section can be tasty, nutritious, light and yet filling all at the same time. Just mix the following ingredients together, make sure it's not just half-baked, and serve up heaping helpings to those hungry readers! 1. Define your audience and your mission. Are you writing, editing and presenting the information for foodies? For the casual cook? For the eat-and-run diner? What is the level of expertise in your audience? True, you can try to be all things to all people, but you'll probably end up not quite serving anyone very well. Even a little focus will go a long way to provide precise, and meaningful, coverage in your section. 2. Balance "pretty pictures" with visual journalism. Sure, we all appreciate gorgeous photos of well-presented dishes, but there are plenty of opportunities to be visually alluring while conveying truly helpful information. (Also, be conscious of the time it often takes to prepare, prop, and photograph those beautiful portraits - would all this energy be better spent on packaging text and graphics in a more informative final package?) 3. Plan, plan, plan! Create a budget for upcoming stories - as far into the future as you can - and make it available in the system where everyone can find it, especially your artists and designers. That way, NO ONE has an excuse for being caught off guard by the sudden, mysterious and unexplainable arrival of events like Easter and Thanksgiving into the publishing cycle! 4. Consider the consumer. Is your topic the many new kinds of bread appearing in your community's restaurants and bakeries? Or making sense out of all the types of Asian noodles that are out there? Don't just show the reader, tell them - who makes these foods, where they can find them, how much they cost, how they taste, how they are made, etc. All this helpful information can be provided in a text block for a group photo, captions for individual photos, or perhaps in infographic form. 5. Think illustrations. They can provide a great relief from the (potential) monotony and drudgery of modular layout in the news sections of your paper. The food section (and other features sections) are often the only oasis in the newspaper for something new, exciting, or refreshing. Don't forget to take advantage of unusual shapes and sizes of art! Where appropriate, ask the illustrator to consider organic shapes that flow through the page. 6a. Avoid cliche' headlines! The next time someone wants to use a headline that says "Let them eat (insert name of food here)," "In praise of (insert name of food here)," or especially "Use your noodle," JUST SAY NO. 6b. Avoid cliche' art! If you label your columns with words like "The Wine Shelf," do they really need little cartoonish icons of wine glasses with them? Does your "Microwave Cooking" column need a little drawing of a microwave oven with it? Or will the words alone suffice? Avoid graphic redundancy; your other visuals (a photo of the wine of the week, or whatever) will tell the story. Equally important, producing and tracking those little pieces of art through the system are yet another unnecessary drain on your art and design staff. Wouldn't you really rather give them more time each week to produce original art, or write better headlines, or edit better graphics? Do you have other suggestions about how to improve the food section? I'd love to hear it. E-mail me or send a notable PDF at the link below. © 2006, Ron Reason. Not to be republished without attribution. Back to top of page
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