Judges arrived in the judging room to begin work at 8:30 a.m. After 40 minutes of discussion, the first of the small circulation newspaper sub-category entries began to pass by each judge. This process continued until 136 publications were reviewed before the judges broke for lunch.
This morning the judges were able to get through three sub-categories -- one each of daily and non-daily publications with a circulation of 24,999 and under. They also completed one daily sub-category that had a circulation of 25,000 through 74,999.
Judges broke for lunch at 12:30 and were able to get out of the hotel for the first time since they arrived. Today is partly cloudy with no snow so the brisk walk less than a block from the hotel will be "refreshing," as one judge put it.
Once judges return from lunch, they will review publications continuing from the lowest circulation sub-categories to the highest.
Before the judges leave Syracuse Wednesday, they will have reviewed 351 publications from around the world.
As judges start hitting the larger-circulation dailies the pace will slow dramatically as they have many more pages to review for the first round of cuts.
We are not at liberty to tell how many publications have made it to the second round of those reviewed so far, but compared to past years the judges are "right on," according to Competition Director Marshall Matlock.
Matlock, along with Audit Director Shamus Walker, are making sure the judges receive a continual flow of entries to review. "The process is to keep the newspapers moving but still give each one a fair chance during the judges' review," Walker said. "It's going to take at least two more days before the final round late Monday or early Tuesday," he predicts.
Once the judges select the World's Best winner or winners, they will spend the rest of Tuesday writing and editing their comments. Those comments will appear on the SND Web site Feb. 19, once the general judging is completed. Comments will also appear in The Best of Newspaper Design™ book showcasing the winning entries. The book will be available from SND in October.
WHAT LESSONS WERE LEARNED SATURDAY MORNING?
After four hours of reviewing newspapers Saturday morning the judges had some strong words to share. Keep in mind that this is just the beginning of the judging process so it's not unusual for opinions to change from morning to afternoon to evening. We'll ask another question Sunday to see if, indeed, the views have started to change and shift.
"A lot of newspapers are good enough to do what they are supposed to do in their community," said Paal Berg. "But they are not the best designed papers of the world. I am tired of U.S. papers with their delicate section front pages, but the inside pages look awful."
"It was difficult to find innovation, or at the very least a fresh take on the known design formulas," Nuri Ducassi said. "There was a mirror image effect present in the entries regardless of the country -- a common visual vocabulary of borrowed elements, which were easily recognized in the basic in the architecture, typography and color palette."
"After reviewing the newspapers this morning, they started to look alike," said Bonnie Jo Mount. "Many newspapers had a certain uniformity based on their size -- tabloid or broadsheet or the region of the world they were from. Ads were dominating some of the front pages and some inside pages were more dynamic and interesting than many fronts."
Ally Palmer said, "So far there have not been many surprises and the general standard has been average. One or two innovative designs through all those thoughts based on a quick look. It's been fairly easy to discount some newspapers. I've seen some nice typographic designs but, in general, type use has been poor."
Saturday's judging day ended at an early 7 p.m. That's only an 11-hour day compared to last year's 14-hour day. Part of the reason flor the early finish may be that the judges had 38 fewer newspapers to review compared to last year. Sunday is a critical day with informaiton being posted on the Sunday page that you won't want to miss.
