Fall preview tabs...anyone else still doing them?

[Bronco77]

The Miami Herald and Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel football sections both appeared over the past several days, and I was impressed by both. The Sun Sentinel's was particularly strong -- 64 pages, with separate section fronts for the Dolphins, U of Miami, U of Florida, FSU, Florida Atlantic/other state colleges and high schools. That paper has cut back so much in recent years that I wasn't expecting much -- and the section wasn't as robust as it was 15 or 20 years ago when it annually made the APSE's top 10 for big papers -- but it was still a damn good effort. So was the Herald's, even though it was about half the size of the Sentinel's -- some good reading there.

 

[flexmaster33]

We're starting a true Football Preview section for the first time this year...in the past it's been a hodgepodge of team photos and rosters that looked like some high school publication put it together. And we would run the team capsules, features and such in the regular sports section. This year we've gotten the go-ahead to pursue a real section with the hopes being to put something together that they can sell better when next season comes around.

 

[fossywriter8]

Ours came out last week. I haven't seen others from around our area. Maybe they wisened up and realize what a resource drain it is when the staffinf is so low. Woild he hetter in the future to just ask for two more pages a day in the section and knock out four to six everyday for a week for high schools, a few days for the NAIA team and a few days for Boise State.

But, I do enjoy making the covers. I got an iPad Pro earlier this year and an Apple Pencil. I never could get the handmg of software like Illustrator, but I've dabbled in art all my life in different mediums: oil pastel, warercolor, clay sculpture, charcoal pencil drawings, all kinds of stuff. The stuff I've done with apps like Procreate are pretty decent.

I've made illustrations for the covers for three special sections now, all coincidentally for sports, and everyone has praised them. I like that it's something unique to our product and more creative than the same old posed player portraits.

Your art just cost some kid his preseason scholarship.

 

[Bud_Bundy]

Ours came out last Sunday. Same basic format. Same lack of ads

 

[apeman33]

They sold ads on the cover of my tab this year. That was a first. Color front and back but they didn't sell any color ads. Meh.

 

[bhmccorm]

Designed this year's high school football tab with digital in mind first. Printed tab was 24 pages and came out three days after the online version. Check it out:
The Herald's 2016 high school football preview