News Illustrated is a full-page information graphic that runs every Sunday in the '' South Florida Sun-Sentinel'', one of 12 newspapers owned by

Tribune Company Tribune Media Company, also known as Tribune Company, was an American multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Through Tribune Broadcasting, Tribune Media was one of the largest television broadcasting companies, owning 39 ...

. It tells news stories visually — and in ways that are hard to replicate with traditional

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...

. Subjects range from explaining advances in

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

health Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...

sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...

and

physiology Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...

History

News Illustrated started as a response to reader requests for

coverage. in 1993, Editor Gene Cryer created a weekly color page aimed at engaging young readers and named it

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

. Initially, the page published stories from the week that couldn't find their way into the daily paper.

Designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...

copy editor Copy editing (also known as copyediting and manuscript editing) is the process of revising written material (copy) to improve readability and fitness, as well as ensuring that text is free of grammatical and factual errors. ''The Chicago Manual of ...

William McDonald would pick the topic, research it, write it and turn it in to the

graphics Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of data, as in design and manufacture ...

department. Graphics Editor Lynn Occhiuzzo and her staff then

illustrated An illustration is a decoration, interpretation or visual explanation of a text, concept or process, designed for integration in print and digital published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, video ...

and designed the page. Once the page progressed, others in the

newsroom A newsroom is the central place where journalists—reporters, editors, and producers, associate producers, news anchors, news designers, photojournalists, videojournalists, associate editor, residence editor, visual text editor, Desk Head, s ...

started taking part, including designer/editor David Baker. The graphics staff also contributed ideas. The page proved popular and was reprinted in 1994 as a book titled "Dancing Honeybees and Other Natural Wonders of Science: An Illustrated Compendium" The credited author was William Lynn Baker, which combined the names of the McDonald, Occhiuzzo and Baker. By 1996, the art department was remade to focus on

information graphics Infographics (a clipped compound of "information" and " graphics") are graphic visual representations of information, data, or knowledge intended to present information quickly and clearly.Doug Newsom and Jim Haynes (2004). ''Public Relations Wr ...

and the graphics staff assumed the reporting, writing and production of the page. For a period of two years (1996 to 1998) former senior graphic reporter R. Scott Horner managed the page, developing ideas, researching and creating the pages. In 1998 other artists in the department began regularly producing

pages. In 1999, it was renamed News Illustrated to reflect a broadening of subject matter to include

, world events,

and

culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...

Readership

News Illustrated reaches more than a million readers every week. The page is published in the ''

Sun-Sentinel The ''Sun Sentinel'' (also known as the ''South Florida Sun Sentinel'', known until 2008 as the ''Sun-Sentinel'', and stylized on its masthead as ''SunSentinel'') is the main daily newspaper of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as well as surrounding Br ...

'', in sister

newspapers, including the ''

Orlando Sentinel The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company. The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by parent company, '' Tribune P ...

'', and is repurposed for weekly distribution by the McClatchy-Tribune graphics wire service, a collaboration between

and

The McClatchy Company The McClatchy Company, commonly referred to as simply McClatchy, is an American publishing company incorporated under Delaware's General Corporation Law and based in Sacramento, California. It operates 29 daily newspapers in fourteen states and ...

Offshoots

News Illustrated has led to two notable sites online. In 1996, graphics director Leavett Biles made the decision to animate News Illustrated content for the Sun-Sentinel's web site. Biles hired Don Wittekind as assistant graphics director and gave him the task of developing a new kind of "multimedia informational graphics. " Wittekind and graphics reporter R. Scott Horner launched the paper's first graphic, "Santa's High-Tech Sleigh," in December 1996 and followed with several more serious projects early in 1997. These pioneering efforts led to the creation of a Multimedia Gallery page, which would later be renamed The Edge. In 2008, a News Illustrated blog launched to expand on the printed page with

interactivity Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but m ...

, information edited out of the page and links to research resources.

Awards

News Illustrated has been recognized many times through the years in international competition, most notably by the

Society for News Design The Society for News Design (SND), formerly known as the Society of Newspaper Design, is an international organization for professionals working in the news sector of the media industry, specifically those involved with graphic design, illustration ...

. Some recent examples: *2005: Three Awards of Excellence: Egg color

Sleep apne

Staff portfoli

*2006: Seven Awards of Excellence: African-American migratio

Global warming (2

High-heeled shoe

Oil drillin

Treating AID

Belinda Long-Ivey portfoli

*2007: Five Awards of Excellence: Super Bowl XL

Construction crane

Nutritio

Pirate lif

Panama Cana

Sources

A practical guide to graphics reporting, Jennifer George-Palilonis

Dancing Honeybees and Other Natural Wonders of Science: An Illustrated Compendium" William Lynn Baker

Professional and Technical Writing Strategies: Communicating in Technology and Science (6th Edition), Judith S. VanAlstyne

Official external links

News Illustrated pdf archive

News Illustrated blog

TheEdge multimedia gallery
Illustration Graphic design Infographics American journalism

References

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