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For the World Cup 2006 coverage Handelsblatt employed a team of five reporters, two of which attended all the soccer matches as well as the events surrounding them. Two reporters were responsible for edting the texts. And one layouter was responsible for researching, selecting and layouting the pictures and graphics/illustrations as well as updating the pages. The number of broadsheet pages dedicated to this event was three per day published Monday to Friday.
We offered our readers the latest match reports. These reports included two regular boxes: One was a table with updates on matches and their results. The second box featured the player of the day, a list of goal scorers, winners and losers and quotes of the day. Each match report carried the team line-ups and goal scorers. Add-ons included exclusive interviews (Ronaldo), latest World Cup news and commentaries.
For the purposes of giving our sports pages a distinctive look, a look which would distinguish them positively from other newspapers we applied the following layout scheme:
Usually all the pages carry a lead feature or main story combined with a photo and/or graphic illustration. In the middle of the page you would normally find a few smaller articles. The bottom of the page would carry another full-spread article, again in combination with a photo/graphic illustration. With this type of layout each article combined with a photograph works as a separate entitiy.There is no obvious connection with the neighbouring articles on the page. This can result in a constant interruption of the reading flow.
To improve readability we decided to place a large square/rectangular box with photographs in different sizes as a central element in the middle of the page. The idea was to let the colourful, dynamic pictures tell the stories. The texts/articles for the World Cup pages -made up of either horizontal or vertical blocks- were grouped around this central element, in effect making up the frame for the picture box. Quite deliberately the pages were not given either a horizontal or vertical image in order to make them visually tempting to read.
“Knock-outs” (Freisteller) were sparingly employed as the Handelsblatt sports pages have to fit in with the overall, mildly conservative content and design of the paper as a whole. Pictures were selected for their expressiveness rather than having to strictly match the story i.e. an original fan picture rather than a boring match photo, a photo of an enthusiastic trainer rather than a boring official. The idea was to draw the reader into the page initially via the picture(s), let him glance over the headlines and then be drawn into the articles on the page. We wanted the reader to come away with not so much as an optical illusion but the feeling of having been fully informed and wanting to buy the Handelsblatt the next day. The Handelsblatt name is synonymous with respectability and integrity. Reporting on the World Cup was no exception. With our daily sports pages we aimed to offer extensive sports coverage, constantly updated throughout the day until the sports pages were put to bed at midnight. Other media notwithstanding we were proud to have the latest results, features and commentaries in the print edition the next day.
It is our aim to offer our reader who may not only be interested in politics, economics and finance concise but full and attractive converage of the world of sports. We use our print pages to point our readers to our internet website hb.com featuring amongst other things live tickers, football pools and information for which the space in the print pages is limited.
As the number of pages for sports coverage is strictly limited it is our overall aim to offer our readers good, exclusive stories and the latest sports news.
With its core expertise in economics, finance and politics Handelsblatt is a strong brand. Our sports coverage should be no exception. |