Duke Rape Case

So I'm late on this post, too, but I've been saving the News and Observer's front page from the day when the charges against the Duke lacrosse players were dropped. The N&O is a paper based out of Raleigh, N.C. As I understand it, they're a very good paper with a lot of focus on enterprise and investigative reporting. They're also supposed to have a pretty good design team.

The night I heard about the charges being dropped I was actually looking forward to checking out their front page the following day. Sad, I know. Anyway, I was pretty disappointed in what I saw. The coverage and play was great. They definitely "flooded the zone," but I don't think the package works from a design perspective. The dominant headline definitely gets the point across, but no doubt most people already knew what had happened the night before when they went to check out the paper. What's more, I don't think the photo they plastered across the front was really all that amazing. It's a nice moment, but it's also the same thing that ran everywhere else. Also it took me a few moments to realize that the other two stories on the page were about the case. It didn't really look like the package it was. I don't think the design turns me off by any means, but it doesn't 'Wow' me either. Considering this is really their story, that kind of surprises me.

Oh and sorry about the small size of the page. There was a password on the PDF ... which apparently meant I couldn't make it a JPEG ... which meant I couldn't upload it.