J. TODD FOSTER: Readers Say Obama Front Page Fell Short

One of the many wonderful things about putting out a newspaper is that the canvas is always blank when you get to work each day. If the picture you painted today with your front-page design fell short, or if an experiment didn’t quite succeed, there is always tomorrow’s clean slate.

Unfortunately, we don’t get a second chance to put out a Nov. 5, 2008, front page. And while we wanted that one – a keepsake that documented Barack Obama’s historic presidential win – to be a masterpiece, we fell short in the estimation of several readers, despite our best intentions.

The criticism: The Obama photo was too small.

The blame is mine to shoulder because it was my job to ensure our front page conveyed the heft associated with such a monumental event in U.S. history. Without the guarantee of any Obama victory photographs before our deadline, however, we chose a local photo and literally at the last minute – well after our deadline – added a small image of Obama.

We anchored the page with a huge photo of a local African-American man and a small child in the voting booth. It was a poignant local photo, but it did not convey the requisite respect to our new president-elect and to that moment in history, several readers argued.

When our readers wanted a global snapshot of history, we gave them a microcosm. And even a Republican or two who didn’t vote for Obama told me this. (This election was of such import that my opinion would be the same even if John McCain had won.)

I can tap dance until the cows come home and point to deadlines and other production issues related to printing an election issue. But at the end of the day, readers don’t care about excuses.

It would have taken some logistical and staffing gymnastics, but with better planning, we could have delivered a better front page.

After I stop kicking myself, I plan to use this episode as a learning lesson and teaching tool.

If I had it to do over again, this would have been my plan: Put all stories and election coverage inside the newspaper and devote page one to a magazine-style cover. It would have featured a huge photograph of either election winner covering the entire front page, with some teaser headlines referring to stories inside.

Our task was complicated the night of Nov. 4 by the fact we had no way of knowing whether a winner would be declared before our deadline. In fact, we feared returns would not be in until the next day, or after. And after the Democratic Primary in New Hampshire, we understandably were extremely leery of polls.

Yet with all the election coverage inside the paper, we would have been free to design, simultaneously, three front pages on Tuesday night: one with Obama as the winner, a second with John McCain as the winner, and a third that said it was too close to call. Without knowing if, or when, the winning candidate would come out and give a victory speech and whether it would be before our deadline, we would have been forced to use an Associated Press or other wire service photograph from earlier in the day or even older.

One reader told me that would have been fine. Then, had Obama taken the stage in Chicago’s Grant Park before we went to press (he barely did), we could have substituted a victory photo for the file photo.

Coulda, shoulda, woulda.

We hope to demonstrate the value of this lesson come Jan. 21, the edition after Obama is inaugurated and officially takes up residence in a home built by slaves and near where slaves were bought and sold. What a symbol that will be.

Meanwhile, at right are examples of front pages we could have run – and which I believe readers would have received warmly. My thanks to copy editor Jerry Shell for crafting these for me.

J. Todd Foster is managing editor of the Bristol Herald Courier and can be reached at or (276) 645-2513.