“American Press Institute” Items

Presentation to Straits Times, Singapore

In July 1993, I was invited to give a series of workshops to the visual journalists at the Straits Times in Singapore. [Straits Times company also owned the Business Times, a tabloid call New Paper and two native language papers: Berita Harian and Zaohao.]

The workshop was for three days. Among the topics covered:

  • Readership
  • Typography and Readability
  • Ethics
  • Color [although we spelled it Colour]
  • Graphics
  • The Future [Year 2000 design, based on the work done at the American Press Institute seminar on the topic].

Membership, Instructions and More for API Design 2000 Seminar

I’ve uploaded a collection of memos about the American Press Institute’s J. Montgomery Curtis Memorial Seminar on the future of newspaper design. The collection starts with the invite / acceptance letter in April 1988. 

On July 21, API sent out the important information about the  seminar — a memo outlining a task for each seminar participant: design a front page of the future.

Each member is being asked to create a front page of the future, including content mix and design elements. These front pages (which will become a part of this year’s post-seminar publication) will be analyzed in advance by Roger Black, one of the most active and acclaimed publication designers in the United States, and discussed during the program.

There is also a schedule of events and information about discussion groups and the final round-table.

Here’s a look at the seminar schedule:

  • Monday, September 12:
      • 8:30 – 10:00 – “Newspapers in a Visual Society11
        Speaker: John Lees, Partner, Herman and Lees         Associates, Inc., Cambridge, Mass.
      • 10:15 – 12:15 – “The Front Page”
        Speaker: Roger Black, President, Roger         Black Inc., New York, N.Y.
      • 2:00 – 3:30 – Study I: “The Future for Newspaper Graphics”
        Speaker: Howard Finberg, Assistant Managing         Editor, Arizona Republic, Phoenix, Ariz.
      • 3:45 – 5:15 – Study II: “Color”
        Speaker: Nanette Bisher, Assistant Art Director, U.S. News and World Report, Washington, DC.
  • Tuesday, September 13:
      • 8:30 – 10:00 – Study III: “The Impact of Technology”
        Speaker: David Gray, Managing         Editor/Graphics, Providence Journal Company, Providence, RI.
      • 10:15 – 11:45 – Study IV: “The Role of Tomorrow’s Newspaper Designer”
        Speaker: Marty Petty, Vice President/Deputy         Executive Editor, Hartford Courant, Hartford, Conn.
      • 12:00 – 1:30 – The membership will be broken into small groups to discuss in greater detail specific issues raised during the seminar.
      • 1:45 – 3:30 – The membership will return to the API Round-Table to hear reports from each group detailing observations and any conclusion.

One other important document: the discussion leaders biographies.

The end product of this seminar can be seen in this slideshow.

 

Presstine Magazine Covers 2000 Design Project

The industry publication Presstime covered the results of the API’s design seminar in its October, 1988 edition. The article’s lede:

Two dozen movers and shakers in the field of newspaper design pondered the substance and form of 21st century newspapers at the American Press Institute’s annual J. Montgomery Curtis Memorial Seminar.

The round-table seminar, conducted at the institute in Reston, Va., Sept. 11-13, used as a focal point hypothetical front pages dated 2000 and beyond that were designed by participants and posted on the walls of the seminar room.

Ironic, isn’t it: “posted on the walls…”

I got a mention for my presentation on the future of graphics:

Howard I. Finberg, assistant managing editor of The Arizona Republic, said the overwhelming majority of editors he questioned predicted graphics will play a greater part in newspapers in the year 2000. But this priority seems to shrink when talk turns to money: The editors told Finberg they would spend 70 percent of any extra funds for reporting and editing, and only 10 percent for graphics.

Sad and not surprising.  Given the visual nature of the Internet, would newspapers be in a better position today if they had invested in something other than words? Just wondering.

API Design 2000 Seminar. The 1988 Invitation

In 1988, the American Press Institute invited a group of designers and editors to the J. Montgomery Curtis Memorial Seminar on the future of newspaper design. Here’s what the seminar leader, John G. Finneman, wrote to participants:

  • We will have a total of 22 invited members, along with API executive staff, at the conference table.
  • API will pay tuition, room and board for participants. You will have to take care of travel expenses.
  • All members will be asked to create a front page for the year 2000, so there will be a little advance work for everyone.

In your case, however, you will be taking on an even heavier responsibility. As I explained, we plan to have four studies presented during this program:

  1.  the future of informational graphics;
  2. color
  3. people
  4.  technology.

Each of the four persons taking on studies will be asked to make brief oral presentations during the seminar to go with printed results which will be incorporated into a post-seminar publication.

I took on the report about the future of informational graphics. It is included in the report / book from the seminar.

Design 2000 Seminar at API: Presenter and Attendee

I was a presenter and an attendee at the American Press Institute’s Design 2000 and Beyond seminar.

Twenty-two leading U.S. and Canadian newspaper designers/editors were invited to API to discuss “newspapers at the turn of the century, from a design standpoint. What would newspapers look like and how would they evolve?”

Here’s a slide show of the book that produced from the seminar: https://www.digitalfuturist.com/home/memo-collection/design-2000-an-american-press-institute-project/design-2000-a-view-of-the-future-from-1988/

 

 

Training that Changes Your Life: API Seminar

In early 1991 John Oppedahl, The Arizona Republic’s managing editor, nominated me to attend the American Press Institute seminar for Managing Editors [newspapers over 77,000 circulation] in Reston, VA.   That seminar did two things: 1. Strengthened some of my leadership skills and confidence and 2. Created some life-long friends.

Like most API [and Poynter] seminars there was lots of “homework” and instructions ranging from accommodations to laundry.  From the acceptance letter:

So your nominee may arrive thoroughly prepared, and for your newspaper to derive maximum benefit for the outlay of training dollars, may I respectfully suggest a day be set aside from regular duties so homework assignments can be completed.

Before members return home, I urge them to sift through the many materials collected while at Reston, with a view to conducting a mini-seminar for fellow staffers so the entire department many benefit from their API experience. I hope you’ll consider giving the process a try, assuming you don’t already have it in place.

Of course, I don’t remember getting too much time off from regular duties but it didn’t really matter.  It was fun and always best to be prepared.