(Mary Nesbitt)

I'm hoping that the remarkable run on day-after election newspapers also marks a resurgence in newsrooms toward high-impact front pages on less historic days. Now that would be change I could believe in.

Newsrooms always turn up the creativity and the volume on special occasions and that happened in abundance on Nov. 5 – check out the archive at the Newseum or see Robb Montgomery's top picks.

It wasn't just the significance of the occasion that made people stop, look, spend time and go hunting for extra copies. I'm no designer and won't try to pass aesthetic judgment, apart from saying that some front pages were truly stunning.

But it's not difficult to see that, in addition to crystallizing the history of it all, newspapers also tapped into emotional triggers – experiences, in the Readership Institute lexicon - that the research tells us matter to people who consume news and information.

Have a look at the following examples and see if they don't embody, from the perspective of readers, one or more of the following:

• stirred by emotion ("Touches and inspires me")


• wowed by substantive photos ("Grabs me visually")


• wanting to talk with others about what they're seeing and experiencing ("Gives me something to talk about")


• wanting to preserve a moment in time for future reflection ("Clip and save")

I'm always partial to the "surprise and humor" experience and while most newspapers stuck with a sense of occasion, there were a few examples of fun last week:




And here in Chicago, which is laying claim big-time to president-elect Obama, a robust visual contest continues a week later among  the Tribune, Sun-Times and RedEye.




Election aside, you may well wonder whether a constant diet of high-impact front pages – visually or otherwise - wouldn't start to pall after a while. Perhaps. But wouldn't it be great to find out.


By Mary Nesbitt (m-nesbitt@northwestern.edu)
Mary Nesbitt is managing director of the Readership Institute.