Have a question
for the design doctor? Got a squabble you need to settle? Send
in a question by clicking here.
Your observations
about that lefthand promo rail are correct -- most papers that
tried it have jettisoned it (or desperately want to). The
problems outweight the benefits, the problems being:
-- if the rail is
wide enough to be effective, it gets in the way of the layout
and seriously reduces your full-page design options;
-- no matter how
wide it is, the promo rail can't accommodate big or wide
images; and
-- it turns into
wallpaper very quickly, which means it can easily become
invisible to the reader. (That’s the main reason we
killed the Page One rail at The Oregonian, at left -- it became
unredeemably stale after a few years. Also, the publisher had
this thing for yellow, even though the entire newsroom found it
horrendous and gagworthy.)
Yes, if you want
effective promos, you pretty much need to run them
horizontally. That way, you can vary the number (say, from one
huge promo to maybe 3 or 4 on any given day). You can vary the
promo headline treatments. You can use type only, or cutouts,
or -- well, you get the point. Variety is key; if you don't
keep them fresh, they'll quickly turn back into wallpaper. (Or
to put it another way: If you don’t care about your
promos, your readers won’t, either.)
As for top vs.
bottom, the thinking now seems to be: are you trying to sell
papers, or just get the reader excited about what's inside?
Unless you're in a competitive market battling it out at the
newsstand, forget about using promos to sell papers. They
won't. Only huge, loud and sexy promos sell papers -- ever seen
Canada's National Post? -- and those may be massive
space-wasters for you. Instead, think of promos as a type of
super-index. And if you run them at the bottom of the page,
readers can see them just fine. You can even vary the depth
from issue to issue, if you want to.
I'd vote, above
all, for maximum flexibility in promos. Keep them surprising,
keep them lively, and keep the images appealing.
