The decision of the leadership of the Chicago Sun-Times (and its sister publications) to lay off virtually all of its photographers and most of its picture editors is simply the most recent — albeit the most extreme — example of the continued devaluation of content and journalists by those on the business side of our industry.

While the challenges faced by media companies today are daunting and well documented, and efforts to rethink old models are being rolled out almost daily, we are concerned about the unintended consequences of a decision to replace decades of photojournalistic experience with reporters with smart phones.

For several years, news organizations have been cutting space, then journalists, then repeating the cycle. This spiral leaves a string of casualties, from professional standards to communities left without advocates and readers left without compelling, engaging local media.

Some will view the Sun-Times’ move as a legitimate strategy for short-term savings. It is our hope that before others take similar action, we can use this moment to start a renewed conversation about the value of journalists and content in our business today.

As leaders of the Society for News Design, the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) and the American Copy Editors Society (ACES), we intend to invite leaders across all spectrums – visual managers, upper newsroom leadership and media business leadership — to participate in a consortium on the New Values of Content at SND’s annual workshop this fall in Louisville. Our intent is to host a realistic and forward-facing discussion of how to reconcile the need for quality photojournalism, copy editing and presentation with the changing reality of the bottom line. We aim to help come up with solutions that don’t involve eliminating entire skill sets from our newsrooms.

Why do we need to talk in the wake of these cuts?

We feel compelled to point out the obvious: cutting photojournalism so radically — along with continued deep cuts into copy editing and other disciplines of visual journalism — is short-sighted because it assumes that it’s technological tools alone that make the journalism, not the judgment and training of the journalists behind those tools. Axing an entire department ignores the necessity for a variety of journalistic disciplines in the newsroom. To create compelling content and engaging journalism, a newsroom needs a range of journalists using a range of tools.

Moreover, it damages our core ability to tell stories and maintain credibility with those we serve. Professional and journalistic standards and execution are what distinguish our industry from all of the other voices in the media landscape. The people, approaches and teamwork we use to tell our stories is at the center of what sets us apart. An industry that has intellectual property as its stock and trade needs to invest in the best, not the most convenient – or the cheapest – raw material.

We are not naive to the pressure to contain costs. We understand that journalists need to develop new ways of gathering and disseminating the news, and in newsrooms around the world we have. Journalists are often the first to embrace new tools and broaden our skills in order to stay relevant. We get that change is inevitable, but that change must be smart and strategic.

Let’s take a few minutes to talk about why photojournalism is an integral part of our industry and should not be so easily tossed aside in our collective push into the ever-changing way people get information today.

• Photography is journalism: The professionals on the Sun-Times staff were some of the most accomplished visual storytellers in the business and were steeped in the nuance of photo ethics. Reporters may miss the moment as they work other parts of a story, freelancers may or may not be bound by the same journalistic standards, and reader-submitted photos could easily come with an agenda (or digital manipulation) and a ton of copyright liability.
• Newsrooms need a range of tools: Just because a tool is convenient doesn’t make it the best choice. A smartphone doesn’t come with a 600mm lens. It’s not going to get past the police tape, or perform in low-light situations. It doesn’t have a fast shutter or a great microphone. It’s an able adjunct, but not the solution to every challenge a journalist encounters. Newsrooms need both smartphones and high-end cameras and the journalists who know how to use them. It should not be a choice of one or the other.
• Photojournalism is more than just pictures: Great photographs are a window into the soul of a community, not simply rectangles with which to decorate a page or attract clicks. What distinguishes a credible news site from the flood of pictures on the web is the skill and ethics of seasoned journalists behind our cameras. The reality is that the still photograph has never been more powerful than it is now.
• Photography and video are key tools for digital operations: Photo galleries and video are consistently big draws to news websites. Closing the portion of the newsroom best skilled in creating those visual stories isn’t strategic. At best, it’s a gross miscalculation of cost versus value. At worst, it’s wrong-headed.
• We must restore our credibility: You need look no further than the breaking news of the last six months to find all the errors the media has made in the constant pursuit to be first with news. While we are all for providing breaking information as quickly as possible, we also know it’s the journalists in the field and in our newsrooms that ensure the information is accurate. Taking large numbers of journalists out of the equation and asking those who remain to multitask more duties is a recipe for more errors, not less.

One of the best things about a newsroom is the combination of disciplines aligned in the mission to tell stories. Lopping off parts of that group risks destroying the special and important things that happen when we all work together. We’ve talked about it before. We need to talk about it again.

So, to those owners and publishers contemplating cuts in the model of the Sun-Times, we have a simple request:

Talk with SND. Talk with NPPA. Talk with ACES. Now more than ever we need to build on our ability to improve and capitalize on the content we produce. Doing that within the constraints of our business is our generation’s challenge. The Sun-Times is not an island and the pain we all felt for those 28 journalists and for the ripples of what we are facing create another chance for us to come together and figure things out.

Society for News Design
Rob Schneider, president
David Kordalski, vice president
Lee Steele, secretary/treasurer
Jonathon Berlin, immediate past president
Stephen Komives, executive director

National Press Photographers Association
Michael Borland, president

American Copy Editors Association
Teresa Schmedding, president

The process began in early April with a meeting between the editor, writer, and photo editor to discuss what the breadth of the story would be. Dan Zak and Ann Gerhart, the story editor, talked about the complexity of the narrative given the time flashbacks that were woven throughout the piece. We had archival photos and our talented photographer Linda Davidson had already been to Oak Ridge to shoot once. But we wanted to find a way to take the reader into the past. In order to help the reader immerse in the intangible parts of the story, we aimed to re-create a visual narrative of the prophets’ journey and symbolic protest. Illustration seemed like the best way to convey these flashback sequences, layered with photography to show exactly who these protesters are and to give a sense of place.

We had to consider the appropriate use of illustration and photography. The key was to have them feel decidedly different so they were sending their own clear signal. We commissioned Jeffrey Smith because his painting style feels very different than Linda’s photography. Jeff’s work has an intensity that conveys relevance and immediacy, which felt right for the story. He compresses a narrative so succinctly and effectively that’s it’s hard to turn away.

Before the photographer was headed back to Oak Ridge, a small group met to storyboard the chapters. They nailed down the main visual elements needed in each chapter, brainstormed photo galleries and photo sequence ideas, and discussed how to inject the Washington bureaucracy angle of the story. The notes from this meeting became the visual outline for print and digital.

The goal of the design was to weave Jeff’s illustrations and Linda’s photographs together to immerse the reader in the past, while also rooting him/her in the present. The illustrations created an ambience, while the photographs gave a sense of place and character. Structuring them together with strong, clean typography that had a slightly literary feel framed the visual voice. In the end, we hoped they would finished each other’s sentence.

Because we knew about this story and had several conversations early on, we were in a good position to create a special digital template outside the usual work flow. Tim Wong, the lead digital designer, was able to create wireframes and designs quickly after we established the story outline. We had sufficient time to review and tweak as the story and visual outline developed and we worked side-by-side with Andrew Metcalf, the lead developer, to flush out the responsive template.

This project would not have been possible without the collaboration we had between members of the print, digital, graphics and newsroom teams. We needed the right expertise from all areas to take the narrative and presentation to the next level across all platforms.

(Sarah Sampsel is SND’s Region 1 Director and the director of digital design at the Washington Post. Janet Michaud is the design director at the Post.)

If you have an interesting project you’d like to share, email us at snd@snd.org

If there is one fact most people know about me, it’s that I LOVE ampersands. If there is an ampersand on a tshirt, on a wall, on a sign, in a window – anywhere near me I will make sure you see it. Like most people, I started using them so I didn’t have to type out the whole word “and” & it was a cute little symbol to throw into a boring sentence full of letters. As I started using them more & more they really started to grow on me. But they weren’t just symbolizing a lazy way to type “and” anymore. Ampersands started to become a symbol of my love for design & motivation for my passion. I might seem crazy, but let me explain why I think everyone should love them as much as I do.

1. They inspire me

One day when I was Googling ampersands (because everyone does that, right?) I came across a blog called 300&65 that posted one ampersand everyday for a year. Basically ampersand heaven. I started going through the pages & became instantly inspired. Every ampersand was different from the next. The shapes they created were beautiful, the detail of each curve, every edge really caught my attention. Maybe an overused cliché – but beauty is in the details & these ampersands sparked my creativity.

2. They remind me there’s always more

The thought that the symbol literally means “and” always pushes me to go farther. I have an ampersand sitting next to my computer and when I’m working on a design, it always catches my eye & makes me think “& what else, Chelsea?” A huge thing I have learned at my job is to never just design a page one way & call it good. What else you can do? You can have this design & this design & this design &…

The thought challenges me to keep creating.

3. They have a personality

Sure there are classic ampersands like Helvetica, but the ones I really love are the hand-drawn, one-of-a-kind, specialty ampersands. They remind me that I don’t need to be a cookie-cutter designer. I don’t need to make my designs look a certain way except for my way. Interjecting your personality is what makes designs great – not just copying what’s already been done. Add your own little pizzazz, don’t just be Helvetica.

4. They symbolize a transformation

Ampersands can be traced back to the first century AD. They started as a ligature of the letters e & t together – “et” meaning “and” in Latin. Some ampersands today you can still see the e & t together, which I love. It has come so far from a simple e & t to a very stylized and recognizable symbol today. Some say it made it loose it’s meaning, but to me it’s the symbolization of transformation throughout life. We are always transforming. As designers, journalists, people – we are on a journey towards something greater, changing & being molded along the way. Especially from a design perspective – styles are always changing & forming into something new.

5. Happy people = happy designers

Lastly, ampersands just make me happy & make me smile. Maybe your thing isn’t ampersands. Maybe it’s a @ or ! or // or (most likely) nothing to do with type at all. Last year for my birthday my boyfriend got me not one, but TWO ampersand necklaces (best present ever). I wear one or the other almost everyday & every time I look in the mirror it makes me feel happy inside & reminds me of how lucky I am to be pursuing my passion. Just a few weeks ago I found an ampersand at TJ Maxx that I got for my desk. It makes my days more cheery & makes me want to design.

So if you haven’t already, go Google some ampersands & be inspired!

(Chelsea Kardokus is a freelance designer for TIME magazine in New York City. See more of her work here.)

March 31, 2013, New York Times front page.

On Sunday morning, March 31, the journalism faithful trudged out to their collective front porch, picked up the hefty edition of The New York Times and found a comfortable spot to curl up for an anticipated weekly read. On this Sunday, if you pay attention to photography, it didn’t take long to be surprised by the (not-so) Old Gray Lady.

Right there, smack in the middle three columns of the Times’ front page, was Alex Rodriguez, staring back at you from a well-composed, well-lit portrait. Taken on an iPhone in a men’s restroom.

To get the full story, we’ll back up nearly a year prior, when a handful of images like this one of Rodriguez were shot, by Nick Laham, for Getty Images. Nick tells the story best on his blog:

“So yes. That was me in the locker room bathroom shooting portraits of the New York Yankees players with my iPhone. This was not my choice, I wasn’t given the option of studio or bathroom stall and decided on the latter. I joined the chain of photographers at 6 a.m. in the confines of the New York Yankees Spring Training facility in Tampa, and took what space I could get and worked with it.”

The full set of images are exactly what you’d expect from a world-class sports photographer like Laham. And more than you’d expect from anyone shooting with an iPhone. They are undeniably well-composed, well-lit; the players are well-posed and you can plainly see that, despite the limitations imposed on him by the situation, Laham took a yearly task and made it interesting. And that’s before you get to any effects added to the images by Instagram.

Because yes, he processed all these photos through Instagram. And Getty Images licensed them, and distributed them, and The New York Times took note, and a little over a year later, there’s an Instagram, bigger than life-size (since life-size is the size of your iPhone screen), on the front page of the nation’s largest Sunday newspaper.

This caused a bit of reaction in the blogosphere, and on Twitter, and on Facebook; and, quite likely, on couches across America. The overreaction was nowhere more apparent than on Charles Apple’s blog at the ACES site, where Apple worked himself up into quite a dither, first calling the Times’ use of this photo worse than a badly-Photoshopped “April Fool’s” image draped across the front page of the Florence (Ala.) Times Daily, and then launched into this tirade:

“I feel strongly that no respectable newspaper should run a picture on page one — or any other page, for that matter — that would get a staffer fired if he or she had achieved the same effect with Photoshop.

… My issue here is with the artificial filters Instagram uses to give this picture the look it has. If you do the same with Photoshop, you’re manipulating the picture and you’ll get fired. Set Instagram to do it automatically and you’re on page one of the New York freakin’ Times.

Did we just decide to give up on photo ethics? I missed that memo.”

Ignoring some of the issues raised here (filters are, by definition, artificial; they filter an image in a way that makes the resulting image different than if shot without them — whether using a filter by physically fitting it over a lens or applying a digital filter via Instagram), the Times’ photo choice struck a chord for many visual journalists on both sides of this perceived issue.

So, SND reached out to a number of visual leaders across the country and they were kind enough to join the conversation.

BRAD SMITH is Director of Photography for Sports Illustrated. Spent the previous 12 years as Senior Sports Photo Editor for The New York Times and has also worked as Photo Editor for the White House during the Clinton administration.

DAVID GRIFFIN is Visuals Editor for The Washington Post, where he oversees photography, graphics, print and digital design. Prior to joining the Post in 2011, Griffin was Executive Editor of e-Publishing for National Geographic, and earlier served as the magazine’s Director of Photography.

MICHAEL WHITLEY is Assistant Managing Editor for Design and Graphics at the Los Angeles Times and is a recovering photojournalist.

ROBIN DAUGHTRIDGE is Director of Photography for the Chicago Tribune. Robin has been at the Tribune since 1995 and prior to that was Director of Photography across town at the Sun-Times. She has served as a faculty member at Poynter and was part of a large team at the Tribune that won the Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting.

And away we go:

Describe your publication’s use of Instagram photos — online and in print.

Smith: The only significant play in the printed version of Sports Illustrated was the Brad Mangin baseball essay from last season, and it was well received, both in the office and with our readers. We would be more than happy to run more under the right circumstances, provided the quality remains up to our level.

Griffin: We certainly have used them online as part of our social-media coverage of major events (political conventions, the inauguration, major weather events, etc.). Some are shot by readers, some by staff. We do not limit in those cases. [Editor's note: The Post also used a small selection of Instagram images in its print-edition coverage of the political conventions, by staffer Bonnie Jo Mount.]

Whitley: We have not used any Instagram photos.

Daughtridge: We have used Instagram photos by Tribune staffers in the case of features and portraiture, and we are sure to describe the technique in the caption or in accompanying text.

Does using photos with Instagram (or similar) filters applied present any ethical issues, in your eyes?

Smith: Not for me, as long as the readers know what they are looking at. I feel it’s important to pull that bit of information out, so they are aware of the photos origins. [Editor's note: The NYT clearly labeled the Rodriguez photo as an Instagram in its credit.]

Griffin: Filters are techniques that need to be weighed based on their specific attributes. To say ‘no’ to filters would be like barring all but normal focal length lenses. The filters have very big ethical concerns, particularly if using them fundamentally alters the photo’s content. In general, we instruct our staff to not use filters, particularly in coverage of news events.

Whitley: The use of Instagram and similar filters would not fit within our ethics policy. They tend to erode the feeling you are seeing something real and true. Readers do it themselves and see how a new “reality” is created with the push of a button. In the digital world, people already assume our real photographs are achieved with filters. If we actually started to do it, it would just increase that feeling and diminish the trust placed in us.

Are there fewer issues in using these images online?

Smith: Personally, I feel the standards should apply across the board, certainly within the same company. Every platform associated with Sports Illustrated should abide by the same standards. I don’t believe there are fewer issues with online use, but there are certainly more opportunities.

Griffin: Not for me. Publishing is publishing, regardless of technology. When we eventually get fully across the bridge to digital, I want to make sure we brought our journalistic integrity with us. It’s not like we should be waiting until print is gone to then bring digital up to those standards.

Whitley: We use one standard wherever we publish a photograph.

Daughtridge: Whether online or in print, our guidelines remain the same.

Obviously, in print, the use of these kinds of filters doesn’t work with every story (nor does applying a filter rescue a bad photo)… Does your publication have general guidelines for when such a use is appropriate?

Smith: I think it falls into the ‘You know it when you see it’ category. Like anything that’s fairly novel, you don’t want to over-saturate your usage. The guidelines are simply: If we have them, we’ll review them and make the decision on a case-by-case basis. That being said, the chances of seeing and using them (in the magazine) are fairly rare.

Griffin: Filters, as with any heavy-handed and obvious-to-the-reader technique, should have a content-specific reason for their use. In very general terms, these filters lend themselves to non-news subjects, which are used more as illustration.

Daughtridge: I do not want any breaking news images taken with this filter, but for camera-conscious portraits, I don’t have a problem with it.

Do you ever assign a photographer to shoot Instagram images on an assignment?

Smith: Last year, our baseball photo editor, Nate Gordon, hired Brad Mangin to shoot specifically some Instagram images, which we used during the 2012 baseball season as part of Leading Off. We are more than open to explore additional opportunities with Instagram.

[Editor's note: We asked Smith to elaborate on how the Mangin assignment came together. His response: "It was a joint proposal between Brad (Mangin) and Nate. I think in some ways, the barriers, both physical and emotional, are let down by using your phone instead of your camera. I think psychologically, one seems less intrusive than the other, and people will often be more relaxed. Partly because in all likelihood, they use Instagram or something like it as well. It has a relatable quality to it."]

Griffin: We might, if we had something specific in mind for which the use seemed appropriate. If a photographer desires to shoot with a cellphone filtering app (like Instagram), he or she would need to discuss this with a photo editor or, at a minimum, also shoot with a regular, non-filtered camera in case their independent decision stepped over an ethical line.

Whitley: No.

Daughtridge: I haven’t assigned a photographer to specifically shoot Instagram images, but I have let the staff know that if they want to try it, it cannot be the only approach. For example, in a portrait session with a CEO, I wanted to see traditional images but encouraged the photographer to experiment with other options.

In March, the lead image on the front page of The New York Times was a striking year-old Nick Laham portrait of Alex Rodriguez — made at Spring training with Instagram and distributed by Getty. What was your reaction, to any of the aforementioned circumstances?

[Editor's note: We reached out to DOP Michele McNally at The New York Times over the course of a couple weeks, and she did not respond to repeated requests for comment here.]

Smith: The New York Times policy is that the photo has to be labeled as Instagram (or whatever would be appropriate). I think that whenever possible, the New York Times (or Sports Illustrated for that matter) would prefer its own original content over a wire image. But the fact is, all things being equal, the best photo for the story should be used. You can’t deny your reader the better and/or more appropriate image for the sake of vanity. I think the Times takes that responsibility very seriously, and if they use an image that is not of their own making, it’s fair to say they have deliberated long and hard, and feel that this image is best suited for this particular piece. Sports Illustrated would do the same thing.

Griffin: It was a portrait — the use was perfectly acceptable. And the Times was fully transparent to the reader about the use.

Whitley: I wondered how the discussion in the newsroom went. We would not have done it, but we are not the keepers of the standard for the them or for anyone else. The Times is a great newspaper that thinks deeply about what they do. I don’t think there is a right answer, just the answer that is right for your publication.

Daughtridge: I don’t have an issue with the photo choice, but I do think the onus is on us as journalists to explain to the viewer why the photo looks the way it looks. When something is an illustration, we need to be transparent in explaining to viewers what it is they’re seeing. There may come a time when Instagram and Hipstamatic and other are so present in the lexicon that a detailed note need not accompany the image—but I don’t anticipate that happening any time soon.

Do you envision more Instagram images in the pages of your publication — and in magazines and newspapers in general — as it becomes even more commonplace? Or do you see its use as a trend that will eventually peter out?

Smith: I think that Instagram itself will continue to grow, and the opportunities (to publish those images) will as well. Each publication has its own boundaries, and they’ll be tested as this type of photography becomes more and more accepted. SI welcomes the possibility of it, but the photos have to maintain a certain value as images, not just as a unique platform for them. Simply put, the photos will be judged on their own as photos.

Griffin: Most novel techniques reach an apogee (sometimes feverish), at which they start to settle among other previous fads. The ones that have a more universal application stand the test of time and will constantly re-emerge when appropriate. I’m reminded of the craze for photos made with a fisheye lens when I started photography: Everyone went nuts using them, but then after a while, there was a backlash from overuse, with folks disdaining them as a gimmick, evocative of one era. But every now and then, fisheye images reappear and feel fresh again. Giga-pan images are a grandchild of the fisheye. I suspect the use of filters like these will go through a similar arc.

Whitley: As more people in newsrooms are expected to use multiple tools and shoot photos in addition to other responsibilities, I think you will see an increase in Instagram use or whatever comes next.

Daughtridge: Like a Holga or pinhole camera, we think it is another tool in the photographers’ toolboxes, but don’t want to overuse it. I think it will peak and then perhaps become ho-hum. Selective focus, panning, pinhole cameras, lomography, ring lights, Polaroids — they have all waxed and waned in use. After all, a poor photograph put through Instagram doesn’t make it a better photo—it would just be attempted camouflage of a poor image. So the original content has to be interesting in and of itself. We need to be judicious in our use of the approach/technique/software.

Back to ethics for a moment. Most publications have a policy in place that prevents photographers or editors from manipulating images digitally. In your mind, does this apply to Instagram photos? Has your ethics policy evolved to react to its growing use?

Smith: First of all, each publication has its own definition of what manipulating images means. Once you’re clear on that, then Instagram either fits within your parameters or it doesn’t. Instagram by its very definition is an assumed manipulated image. Does anyone not use the filters available when they use Instagram? Not many, I would guess. And that doesn’t even include all of the other apps available. So, as a platform for photography, you already know it’s manipulated to some degree — that’s the form it arrives in. So, the non-manipulated image argument would rarely apply to Instagram.

Griffin: We have specific guidelines, and our policies try to reinforce the universal question regarding intent: Will this deceive the reader? If it does, then it is not permitted. I may endorse experimentation with cell phones and filters, but that does not automatically mean I condone publishing such images when they do not meet the more stringent criteria required of good journalism.

Whitley: Our policy is very clear about digital manipulation. We are at one extreme and it is the standard that is best for us. The policy has not really changed in response to Instagram, Hipstamatic, etc. because the policy already excluded use of such tools.

Daughtridge: (Tribune photographer) Alex Garcia used Instagram for a series of portraits on the best of the previous year’s restaurants and chefs. Inside the section, we ran a box that plainly told the reader that he had used Instagram to create the portraits. This was discussed upfront and we feel the images worked together as a collection. In the Travel section last year, a box that ran with (Tribune photographer) Scott Strazzante’s images told readers that he “shot these photos with his smartphone, using the Hipstamatic app, which adds borders and creates enhanced, unpredictable color.”

Pulitzer winner Damon Winter famously used Hipstamatic (for the purposes of this conversation, we’re treating it as equal to Instagram, just sans the social functions) to document soldiers in Afghanistan for The New York Times. He told the Times that shooting with his iPhone was “more casual and less deliberate,” which got the subjects to let their guard down a bit — especially difficult in that environment. The images were part of the entry that won him Photographer of the Year from POYi. What are your thoughts on that technique, and on Damon’s impressions of how subjects react to the tools a photographer is using?

Smith: Most importantly, let’s not lose sight of the fact that Damon Winter was in a war zone, with his life, and the lives of others, constantly being threatened. That atmosphere creates an aptitude for people like Damon to alter their original plans constantly, and in this case, for him to use his iPhone. Also, he had no internet connection, which meant the images couldn’t be transmitted in a timely manner. He worked with what he had. I don’t think it’s anyone’s first choice as a photojournalist covering an international conflict, but would you rather he not document it for the sake of some implied level of integrity? I’m grateful he problem-solved in that situation, and the world saw those images as a result. As I said in an earlier answer, I think the phone is far less intrusive than a large professional camera. It just is. It may not take the same quality image, but it can be less threatening. And I’m sure he was able to take some images he might have been able to had he not used the phone. I think in the end, the readers of the New York Times benefitted from that.

Griffin: The question that needed to be weighed was: does the use of a cell phone camera fundamentally alter the reality of what Damon was photographing? That is a decision for the Times — one that I’m sure they weighed seriously, as would anyone employing a relatively new technique. If Damon, whose reputation as a journalist is solid, feels he can capture better, truer, more honest images with a cell phone, then it is probably a good choice. The adage holds true: “What’s the best camera? The one you have with you.”

Whitley: If we had a photographer who felt he or she would get a better result with an iPhone, then I would say give it a go. People are pretty used to being photographed with smart phones, and they do present a smaller physical barrier between subject and photographer than a full-sized camera body. But I don’t think Hipstamatic had anything to do with the subjects letting their guard down. We would just draw the line at using the (phone’s) basic camera.

Daughtridge: I agree that using an iPhone can potentially be more comfortable to a subject, but every situation is different and it’s often the personality and approach of the photographer himself or herself that puts the subject at ease. Establishing a relationship and trust with your subject is paramount to any photo equipment you are using.

Any other thoughts on this, or any related topic?

Smith: It’s an interesting time for all of us in the business. My job, at the end of the day, is to make sure we’ve provided photographic evidence of the world we cover. Simple enough. Where those images come from — professional cameras, point-and-shoots, iPhones — it doesn’t matter to me so much. What matters to me is that they represent something interesting and informative, that they maintain the standards that have been set for Sports Illustrated, and that they advance the reader’s experience. If they can meet those qualifications, then I’m more than happy to share them.

Griffin: Cameras, by their nature, distort — they are simply unable to capture the world as it is. The reason I choose to work with professionals is because they understand these limitations and are masters at using these recording boxes to interpret a scene as accurately as possible. An amateur attempts to elevate their often-poor-quality images by adding filters, which are reminiscent of techniques mastered by pros. When it comes to non-pros, I applaud this, since anything that makes a regular person feel better about their photographs is a plus for photography overall.

Tim Ball is a freelance art director and design consultant currently working on Digital First Media’s redesign team. Previously, he worked as an art director at The Washington Post and in design and management positions for newspapers across the country. www.timballstudio.com

In school, geography was always one of my least favorite classes. Don’t get me wrong, I love maps, (especially transit maps – which sadly have nothing to do with the climate of Jamaica) but I just didn’t really care for learning about the precipitation rate of China. But today, my entire opinion about geography completely changed. This morning TIME, powered by Google, debuted a project of timelapses from 1984 – present that stitch together millions of satellite images of the Earth you can explore to see the evolution of its geography. The images are strikingly beautiful and rich with history and information that really only something this visual can teach us. If someone would have shown me this in school, I would have been a lot more excited about class.

Last July an exclusive collaboration started between Google, NASA, Carnegie Mellon and TIME. Since 1984, NASA’s Landsat program (a series of satellites orbiting the planet) have been capturing images of the ever-changing Earth between eight different satellites gathering millions of pictures. To quote from the project, the footage “weighs in at 1.8 trillion pixels per frame, the equivalent of 900,000 high-def TVs assembled into a single mosaic.” … incase you were wondering THAT’S A LOT.

Click to visit the “TIME and Space” time lapse project.

These photos were handed over to Google and with their superhuman technologies brought them to life to reveal the changing geography of our planet over the past 30+ years. It is truly incredible to watch the evolution in such a beautiful way. Today marks the very first day this footage has ever been released. The entire team that worked on this site at TIME did an incredible job, not to mention the producer, who has been working on this since July and has been up for about 48 hours straight getting ready for this launch.

There are several different ways to explore the images. There are four main areas – Dubai, Columbia Glacier, The Amazon and Las Vegas – that highlight aspects from urbanization to climate change and more. But, the coolest part to me is you can also search for any area in the world and watch it grow. I was even able to see my tiny hometown in north Idaho (surprise, surprise – not much has changed there)!

So, if you have an extra five minutes today go explore this project and see what you find. The world is a beautiful place.

—Chelsea

(Chelsea Kardokus is a freelance designer for TIME magazine in New York City. See more of her work here.)

The masses – and by that I mean 1,125 of you – have spoken, and entry No. 24, designed by Osama Aljawish, will grace the cover of the 34th annual SND Best of News Design book. Congratulations to Mr. Aljawish and to all the artists who submitted such an incredible array of choices.

Cover No. 24 received 545 votes in the final round, good for 48 percent of the total. Cover No. 39 finished second, with 265 votes (24%); Cover 45 finished third with 127 votes (11%).

We caught up recently with Osama Aljawish, who is from Syria and is a senior designer at Al Shabiba:

How did you get started in design?
I was born and raised in Syria. I received my BA degree from Damascus University in 2003 and am currently a member of Fine Artists Association of Syria. I worked in an advertising agency in Oman for five years before I joined the publication industry as Senior Designer for Al Shabiba, the sister publication of Times of Oman. I was greatly fortunate to be part of the team that launched the redesign of Al Shabiba and had the honor to work with Dr. Mario Garcia and Adonis Durado. I received several awards from the SND Creative Competition, including a gold and a JSR (judges special recognition).

You do both design and illustration on your pages. How does this impact your process? Does it make for more impactful design?
Indeed, illustration plays a very important role in making the page looks good. When the designer himself is the one illustrating or art directing the page, he has more control in communicating and visualizing the story.

Some of the most exciting work in the SND competition in recent years has come from the Arab world. What is driving the excellence and innovation we are seeing from that part of the world?
Looking at the work across the globe from Far East to America and Europe, this fuels inspirations to us in wanting to represent the Middle East in the best way possible. I refer to the Middle East, as opposed to the Arab world in general, because in the last few years the canvas has changed in which the newsrooms are employing nationalities from different parts of the world. This is the major factor in creating a diverse and effective design workforce.

You submitted several cover design entries. Was No. 24 your favorite? If not which one was?
My favorite is entry #21. Finally, I would like to thank everyone for their support in voting for my entry. Well, this is not the first time that I entered the SND cover competition; my work in SND33 also came as one of the finalists. And my advice to others: Just keep trying until you succeed.

To see Osama Aljawish’s portfolio please visit the link

Sports Designer of the Year 2012 from Rich Boudet on Vimeo.

Last Tuesday, we had nothing but an idea and a goal: Paint a clear picture of the astounding events of the week of April 15. The ever-changing nature of the story of the Marathon bombings meant the truth was garbled and questions still loomed large. We wanted to set the record straight and spotlight the massive law enforcement effort. The final product, “102 HOURS IN PURSUIT” did that — and much more.

As the reporters fanned out, our intrepid graphics staff began mapping out the week, choosing a striking hand-drawn style in which to portray Friday’s dramatic climax. Chiqui Esteban, David Butler, James Abundis, and Patrick Garvin tackled the huge assignment, updating the graphics in print and online with new information up until the last minute.

Photographically speaking, we faced some difficult presentation challenges. We faced no shortage of good content, so the goal became finding images that were compelling but not too familiar. And there was a premium placed on images that hadn’t run before. By this point, we had published hundreds of photos in print and online, but the project’s photo editor, Lloyd Young, did a remarkable job of sorting through the images and picking out the gems. He and I worked very closely to map out the section, organizing images and paying close attention to the pacing.

Page design had to remain flexible; the story was being written up until the last minute and its final length waxed and waned throughout the afternoon. All the while, the section’s copy editor, Dave Richwine, maintained his cool and handled this project with skill.

The final product was one massive story (14,000 words) that filled eight clear pages. Nearly 40 journalists contributed to this project, and we bylined the story “BY THE STAFF OF THE BOSTON GLOBE.” It really felt like a team effort — and I couldn’t have been prouder to be a member of that team.

A look at the Boston Globe’s special section, “102 Hours In Pursuit.” Click to view a larger image.

A look at the Boston Globe’s special section, “102 Hours In Pursuit.” Click to view a larger image.

A look at the Boston Globe’s special section, “102 Hours In Pursuit.” Click to view a larger image.

A look at the Boston Globe’s special section, “102 Hours In Pursuit.” Click to view a larger image.

A look at the Boston Globe’s special section, “102 Hours In Pursuit.” Click to view a larger image.

A look at the Boston Globe’s special section, “102 Hours In Pursuit.” Click to view a larger image.

A look at the Boston Globe’s special section, “102 Hours In Pursuit.” Click to view a larger image.

A look at the Boston Globe’s special section, “102 Hours In Pursuit.” Click to view a larger image.

(Kyle Ellis is a designer for CNN Digital in Atlanta and digital director for the Society for News Design.)

Officer’s Report

Rob Schneider, President
David Kordalski, Vice President
Lee Steele, Secretary/Treasurer
Jonathon Berlin, Immediate Past President

WHERE WE STAND NOW: We had a challenging year in 2012, for many reasons. But thanks to a lot of hard work in the last six months, 2013 promises to be a lot better and more financially stable year for SND. For that work, we owe a great deal of thanks to Executive Director Stephen Komives and the work of Jonathon Berlin and Marshall Matlock in 2012 to help transition the creative competition to a more efficient cost structure. We did a great job of cutting expenses this year while contest revenue stayed strong and performed better than budgeted. So we are financially strong right now. But we still have some fundamental problems looming for the future, especially our drop in membership revenue.

TRAINING: In addition, we’ve secured the three largest grants in SND history that have not only help our financial bottom line, but also given us a much more robust training lineup for 2013. So we will have 12 training events on the calendar for the rest of the year, most of which are free to members or available at a low cost! Stephen Komives is helping organize eight free iPad/Mobile Design Quick Courses in locations across the U.S. and Canada (Washington, Chicago, Minneapolis, Toronto, Montreal and Louisville and a few more to be announced.) In addition, thanks to the work of Jeff Goertzen, SND will be hosting four “Graphics Garage” events (in Anaheim, Dallas, Chicago and Louisville.) And our international chapters continue to provide valuable training around the world.

COMMUNICATION: We are also committed to communicating better with our members and the visual journalism community as a whole, largely through our work on snd.org and social media. I’m proud of the work we’ve done this year continuing the “Conversation about Design” that Jonathon Berlin started last year on the site and we continue to identify opportunities to talk about design (most notably lately the coverage of the Boston Marathon terrorist attack.) Our goal is to be the visual voice of reason for journalists around the world and help fill a void in our industry right now, as many of our brethren have been taken out of newsrooms completely. We owe it to them, and to journalism as a whole, to continue to preach the principles that led to the creation of SND in the first place. We’ll also be sending out another great issue of Design magazine shortly (thanks to the help of Paul Wallen for finishing this issue. Paul is filling in for Suzette Moyer, who had to resign her position.)

Judges at SND34 in Syracuse, New York.

COMPETITIONS: In February, we completed our 34th Creative Competition in Syracuse (thanks to coordinator Melissa Angle for her great work as well as C. Marshall Matlock and Shamus Walker for their continued hard work) and our third edition of our Digital Competition in Muncie, Ind. (thanks especially to Ryan Sparrow, Jeremy Gilbert, Joey Marburger and Tyson Evans for their hard work.) Both of our competitions continue to evolve and improve (especially on the digital side, where the strides these past few years have been nothing short of amazing) and it’s my goal to continue that evolution and improvement with the ultimate goal of enhancing them as educational events (both in the process of how we run them but also how we communicate the results.) And I’ve already talked about how we have cut costs while competition revenue has remained steady.

THE BOOK: With that educational mission in mind, we are now working with the Steve Layton and Indiana University to produce our 34th edition of the Best of News Design. In addition to the printed book you receive, we’ll be offering digital versions of the 34th and 33rd editions of the book with an eye on making the digital experience of our competition results more robust, visual and valuable in the future.

INTERNATIONAL WORK: One of the most amazing facets of SND is the international reach of the organization and the amount of varied activity from our 21 regions in the world.

To that point:

• In March, SND-E hosted the 21st edition of the Malofiej Awards and World Summit in Pamplona.

• In May, SND Chinese is hosting a three day Quick Course featuring editorial illustration and storytelling across platforms.

• SND Scandinavian recently completed its news design competition and will host its workshop Oct. 10-11 in Copenhagen.

• SND-DACH is already hard at work preparing for our 2014 Workshop in Frankfurt.

• SND’s Region 20 (Middle East and Africa) is in the process of running its own regional competition right now as well.

• SND India had a milestone, with the first entries from its regional to the creative competition.

SNDLOU: Ryan Hildebrandt is preparing a great workshop that will bring together a multitude of visual journalism disciplines and will focus on inspiration, education and examining the “why” behind the decisions we make across platforms. We’ll also be celebrating SND’s 35th anniversary this November. We’ll talk about how our history, and especially our origins, can help guide us to best serve our mission in the future. We are currently working on partnering with another organization that will help us look forward and to the future in a smart way that will help instruct SND’s future path.

WEBSITE: Digital director Kyle Ellis is working hard not only to develop new and better content for our website and other digital and social media offerings but also to redesign snd.org to reflect what our members have told us they want and need. He’ll put together a “hack weekend” May 4-5 to help fix and redesign parts of the current site so those improvements will start rolling out soon. We’re also working to make our job board easier to use and search and work more seamlessly with our current site. In addition, Kyle has been working on a larger scale master plan for snd.org that is exciting to think about but will also require a big set of resources as well and we’ll start pursuing grants for that shortly as well.

GRANTS: Thanks to the leadership of Stephen Komives, we’ve secured the three largest grants in SND history over the past six months ($56,000, all of which have helped enhance our training.) And we’re pursuing more grant opportunities that will allow us to serve our members even better in the future. We’re also exploring more opportunities to partner with other journalism organizations in the future to better enhance our missions and the journalism community as a whole. We’ll spend some time this afternoon working on the beginnings of that process.

FOUNDATION: We’ll be working to refine our SND Foundation’s mission and increase our fundraising so that we can serve more students and journalists who desperately need our help and need the educational benefits we can give them. SNDF President Neal Pattison and SND Vice President David Kordalski will be leading that charge.

DATABASE: Lee Steele will be working with Stephen Komives to improve the quality and quantity of our competition databases on our website and explore the best path toward getting all 34 years of competition results in a digital space. In the immediate future, though, we will change our database vendor and get a much more stable system at a cheaper cost and one that will allow us to have the past 20 years of (from SND14 to SND 34) which itself will be an amazing improvement for the website that we’ll want to tell everyone about.

MEMBERSHIP: Membership continues to be a huge problem for us (we are losing about 100 members each year) and we’re going to work this afternoon to try and improve that by creating a corporate membership model that will better reflect the realities of the industry and help increase our revenue. The truth is we have to find a long-term strategy for membership to help SND build a stable revenue model for the future, otherwise our membership numbers reflect a ticking clock toward us having to make much more difficult decisions. We have to build a future blueprint for SND that features a viable, sustainable economic model that will give us more stability in the future. We’ve made great strides in this area over the past four years and we can’t stop now!

The SND Louisville workshop will take place November 7-9.

2014 WORKSHOP: I’m excited about all the hard work Stefan Knapp has put into Frankfurt 2014 and while it will be an exceptional workshop, we will also have to plan for a smaller contingent from the U.S. So this also creates an opportunity for us to explore having our 2015 workshop in the spring instead of the fall. It makes sense for a lot of reasons, and I think we could pick a great destination in the U.S. to host this workshop. We’ve already been laying the groundwork over the past few months and I’m hoping we can move toward making a decision on this in the next few months. We’ll explore some options Saturday afternoon as well.

2014 BOARD MEETING DATES: While we know our Fall 2014 board meeting will be in Frankfurt, we have an opportunity to find a different Spring 2014 board meeting location (and find a good logistical time to make a site visit to Frankfurt, possibly tying it to a SND officer visit to Malofiej in March 2014?) Orlando would be great site for the spring board meeting and it would be great to tie a Quick Course to that event as well. I’d like for us to identify a date for this event in the next month.

BOARD APPOINTMENTS: Jonathon Berlin did a great job filling a lot of vacant board positions last year and so we are mostly taken care of in this regard. However, the board positions are constantly fluid with people moving in and out of them so we need to create a backlog of good people who could possibly help us in the future. In addition, we’ve found this year that we may need to change the structure of some of the board positions to help us in certain areas. We’ll discuss more on Saturday afternoon. 

Here are the 2013 goals for SND, as set by Rob Schneider, with input from other officers and the board:

OUTREACH: Communicate, Educate, Project (Our Future)

COMMUNICATE

• Be the visual voice of reason to our members and the visual journalism community
• Communicate with our members constantly
• Daily through snd.org, social media
• Weekly through email blasts
• Monthly with an officers report (written by President or Executive Director)
• Communicate with visual journalism community constantly
• Give context, analysis to design. Continue the “conversation” about design
• Take a stand on issues
• Broaden, improve social media strategy and execution
• Be a leader to the international visual journalism community
• Focus on places where we can make a difference

EDUCATE

• Host eight training events this year,four graphics garages, four other events
• Produce digital publications that advance the conversation about visual journalism; eBooks for SND33 and SND34 annuals
• Two issues of digital version of Design magazine
• Tell history of visual journalism
• Find best way to activate as many of our databases as possible (and find way to make them more visual)
• Begin process of finding grant to digitize our archives
• SND LOU workshop (Celebrate our 35th anniversary, Celebrate our future be relentlessly optimistic as our theme)
• Reach out to Past Presidents for history, inspiration, guidance for future event at SND LOU
• Continue to evolve our competitions in to educational events (either in person or digitally)

PROJECT (our future)

• Develop five-year plan for SND with viable economic model for future
• Update bylaws to reflect our current reality
• Redesign snd.org to be a visual journalism leader
• Develop corporate membership model (increase membership revenue over 2012)
• Find path to reach out to high school member publications as well
• Seek two new grants (I need help wording this goal)
• Partner with other journalists (ONA, ACES, etc.)
• Revamp SND Foundation
• Raise more money than last year
• Fill out and revamp board
• Develop mission for SNDF’s future
• Transition creative competition and digital competition to future
• Figure how/when of transition of creative competition to digital entry
• Continue to organize structure and categories for digital competition and improve digital entry
• Focus on future as an educational event; determine whether we should combine this event with the workshop (possibly Spring 2015?)

What stood out?

Well, the general theme to this year’s winners was, “smart” if I can pick one word. I think even ahead of creativity and resources, the best work this year made readers come away feeling educated, or at least having been asked to think. In the Snow Fall series from the New York Times, the designers didn’t use a single tool beyond what was needed, which was, photography, white space and typography. A lot of people will look at that project and think, “I could do that with that content too!” and they’re right to a point. The NYT DID take an incredible story and serve it to readers in a way that left them feeling like there were no leftovers. Every square inch felt valuable.

The same goes for the Los Angeles’ Times “Not In Play” illustration and Buffalo’s “Anger Management” illustration. There were a lot of illustrations done at that level, but not many had the subtleties of Not In Play (the rainbow seams) or the depth of Anger Management (the headlines). They both gave readers a reason to spend an extra beat with those visuals, and that set them apart.

The Los Angeles Times and Washington Post both had images of every U.S. gold medal as part of their winning Olympics entries. Same goes for El Correo’s well-received Olympics graphics and the Times of Oman’s Olympics work. Both of those made you feel smarter for having spent time with the visuals. Those are the highlights, but they also represent a clear theme in the 2012 winners.

Disappointments

As a whole, the live stuff made me sad. We’re all still papers of record and I don’t know whether it’s a product of cutbacks in space, creativity or commitment (or all three), but the ability to play a live cover around storytelling photography, a bold headline and an organized, simple grid felt like a lost art outside of the winners this year. Quite frankly, a lot of live stuff felt … designed. Which is the opposite, in my opinion, of how it should feel.

Same goes for breaking news, where too often organization and planning seemed to lose out. There were exceptions — the Boston Globe’s very well-planned Big 3 obit, for one — and those exceptions won.

Multimedia entries were low again, though some incredible work shone this year. We posted those over on the SD Facebook feed.

Advice to those who didn’t win

The first thing I’ll say is, assess how you enter. Entering this competition isn’t the same as entering SND, where you’re allowed to take as many shots as you want. Theoretically, you could enter 500 entries in SND and win 500 awards. In Best of Sports Design, no matter how much you enter, we’re still only aiming for the top seven percent. Consequently, if you entered 50-60 times in the single page categories, you effectively ended up battling against yourself. And many times I saw entries from the same publication canceling each other out in judging. Not unlike two Heisman candidates from one school stealing votes from each other.

Expectations

Well I was elated at the global reach of the competition. I hope that for first-timers outside of the U.S. that the success of international entries this year can be a jumping-off point. I think it’s very important for sports design on a global scale to feel like a collection of ideas we can all learn from. Maybe the New York Times will never look like Adrenalina, but maybe the respective efforts to reach readers can provide lessons for both.

Small papers

We didn’t have many small paper entries this year. We had even fewer small paper winners. In my opinion, there’s a two-part answer:

First, the goal of Best of Sports Design is to recognize the best work, and shall remain so. More winners won’t equal a better competition, it’ll equal more winners. So for the easy solution of, “split it up by circulation category,” you have to consider: The Times of Oman, Adrenalina and Dagens Industri would have landed in a small circ category this year. I think you’d simply see those papers clean up there, and not necessarily provide a small paper in the U.S. Midwest with avenues to win. What I want this competition to do is to recognize the best work and end there, and I see us continuing to pit everyone’s work against each other.

With that said, in the past we have had a “Small Paper Best in Show” panel in conjunction with the voting. This requires interest (read: entries) on small papers’ behalf, and if interest is there in the future, we’ll bring that back.

Colleges

They didn’t play this year. I don’t know what to do about it, but I know we’ll open the competition to colleges again next year.

Sports Designer of the Year

I have no idea.

I mean that literally. I have no idea. I do not know who won. I do not know when it will be posted. For the first time ever, I’ll get to be surprised like you when it is revealed right here in this space.

The award is given by a panel of seven sports designers, art directors, managers and editors from around the world, all of whom most people agree deserve to make such a commendation. I was part of the panel until the field was narrowed down to five, and with the panel’s support, I recused myself. My conflicts this year are too great for me to take part in the discussion. I was replaced on the panel and have been kept away from discussions since. So I am as excited as you may be. Stay tuned.

What’s left

We’ll continue to have a presence here. (Thanks to Kyle Ellis, Jonathon Berlin, Rob Schneider and Stephen Komives for letting us play here.) We’ll also continue our social media presence at Facebook and Twitter. All of the judges will be thanked on the Facebook feed after SDOY is revealed.

Until then, let’s have a discussion. In the comments here, on the SD social feeds. Via email. However you see fit. What can we do to improve sports design as a whole?

One of the disappointments in the demise of the SportsDesigner blog, along with the demise of the original NewsPageDesigner, is that we have lost our outlets for discussions. We don’t have a place we can turn for regular back-and-forth about sports design in 2013. People, myself included, still get worked up, no doubt, no doubt and no doubt, but that perpetual showcase — and the pondering the showcase lends itself to — is what we’re missing. You can blame Rich and me, though we’d say blogging is hard! Blame changes nothing though. What we need is to seize opportunities for discussion when they arise, and this competition is certainly one of those.

Gantz is the Director of User Experience for Vox Media, the company which owns sbnation.com and is still basking in the glow of being named one of the Society of News Design’s World’s Best Designed news sites.

Ryan Gantz, Director of User Experience for Vox Media.

He believes the coordination of many departments’ goals is where the success of sbnation.com emanates from.

“This is where you are getting lot of what made Vox successful, trying to get products and technology and advertising and editorial all to work together, because the overlap is where the magic happens,” Gantz said.

The process, which was hugely collaborative, included writers, designers and developers. “We have a flat organization, and we find that building great products absolutely requires cross-team collaboration,” he said.

Gantz has been with Vox Media for six years, back when SB Nation was known as Sports Blog Inc., which featured about 100-150 independently deployed sports blogs with each operating on its own content management system. SB Nation now features 312 team and sports-focused blogs that embrace the fans’ perspective and run on a single CMS called Chorus.

The vision for the SB Nation that readers see today started in January of 2012. The process began with gathering requirements, followed by the creation of wireframes and designing the visual architecture. Eight months of work came to fruition when the new look launched on September 24, 2012.

SB Nation made responsive design a fundamental building block of its efforts. Gantz said this forced the team to consider mobile as a first-class experience, and it redesigned all screens for different devices at same time. The markup for the desktop and mobile sites are both the same.

Gantz said their mobile readers want to read the text first at the top of the page, so the minimal photos on the mobile site are played further down the page.

“The responsiveness of the sites has been a big deal,” Gantz said. “Lots of people are hopping on the bandwagon but they aren’t thinking through what that means. The responsiveness has been very satisfying.”

The impact of the Hoefler Frere-Jones typefaces is evident upon the first view of the site. Gantz believes the quality of the body copy in particular is greatly improved. The World’s Best judges noted the typography’s impact is evidence of how far web type has come in recent years.

Gantz said a great emphasis was also put on accommodating advertising. “We were respectful of advertising being a key player in this process,” Gantz said.

The advertisements all read clearly at a desktop width, a tablet width and a mobile width. The advertisements are also prominently displayed. For example, an ad for Speed Stick deodorant, which was running on April 11, not only surrounds the editorial content, it also bleeds into the top of the editorial content.

Gantz credits John Fuller, the site’s lead designer, with pushing the team to focus on traditional news design. “We let the design get out of the way so that the content could shine through. We hope that is what caught the eye of the judges.”

Over The Monster is the SB Nation community for fans of the Boston Red Sox.

Inevitably, there are lessons to be learned from such a massive project. Gantz said his team’s lessons learned center around how readers used the individual fan pages, and understanding the impact of the changes they made.

“We weren’t necessarily as thoughtful about how this (redesign) would affect some communities as we should have been,” he said. “As we created more cleanliness, we sometimes compromised on tools those communities used and their functionality. The fan pages are like sports bars in some ways, and people like to hang out there. If you come in and re-paint the walls, and move their LCD monitor, they’re going to say, ‘Why are you changing around my dive bar? This is my home.’”