Tribune's LaRoche layout

That's their style. Much more impact on a daily basis than most sports sections.

 

Keep the headline and the two stories out front.
The mugshot circus is overkill, though.

 

So we can then add a couple of game stories readers can get anywhere out there then? How innovative. Seems they're going for impact, and this has been a national conversation. I think it works well.

 

I think it looks like they don't have anything fresh, so they go with a design gimmick.

 

Did they get around to answering the question asked in the headline, or did they leave us with more speculation?

Seems to me that if you're going to play it up like that, you better provide some solid answers, based on thorough reporting.

 

Fair enough. But I think it is smart to focus on something of local interst instead of a bunch of game rehashes, which are still offered. Our paper is trying a similar approach, though it's a work in progress and I'm not sure we have the resources to pull it off properly.

 

And having not read the stories, YF raises a good question. Is this just rehashing the week that was disguised as an investigation?

 

It's a story that has huge crossover between sports and news. Huge story in Chicago. The cover has people talking, and that's the goal. Well done.

 

It's something you don't see very often -- the White Sox knocking the Cubs off the front page.

 

I think the whole package worked pretty well. The story not played on the front — which looks at how other Chicago sports teams handle the kids-in-the-clubhouse/locker room question — is a solid third piece of the puzzle. Definitely verges on overkill — I think they've ridden this horse for all it's worth — but it's a good break from the spring-training Cubs overkill that has been the usual staple of the section lately.

 

LOL

 

That's the last thought that is going to enter the typical reader's mind. A major problem in newspaper design is when people are afraid to go big with their centerpiece. We use the word "overkill" far too much.

This isn't the age of seven-start fronts anymore.