The Kansas City Star dressed up for Halloween and gave its readers a treat.
The Star went three-dimensional with 3-D photos on each of its section fronts, including a live photo from Nebraska's victory against Missouri in Lincoln, Neb.
Editor Mike Fannin, who was previously the paper's managing editor for sports and features, said a 3-D edition had been in discussion for some time and "we wanted to introduce a little fun into a Sunday paper that landed on Halloween."
"We thought it was an opportunity to not only demonstrate creativity and whimsy but also take the idea further than other examples we had seen," Fannin added. "All the 3-D editions we had studied had been presented as wild photo pages in a standalone section format."
(Download a pdf of the page here.)
The Florida Times-Union produced a 3-D photo section for the Super Bowl in 2005, and the Augusta Chronicle had a 3-D photo section as part of its Masters coverage a few years ago. The Philadelphia Inquirer in June produced an 8-page 3-D section of images that included a poster of Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay.
The Charlotte Observer produced a 3-D section earlier in October — called "Comin' At You" — to kick off its coverage of race week at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The Star's section included 3-D centerpiece images on each section front — A-1, Metro, A&E, House&Home and Star Magazine in addition to Sports — and a 3-D centerspead on haunted houses in the Sunday magazine.
"Everything was photographed in advance, except the live shot on Sports, which was the trickiest one because using a 3-D camera does present logistical challenges," Fannin said. "Most of the images were printed on heavier stock for maximum visual pop."
The sports section front included 3-D photos from Nebraska-Missouri, Kansas State-Oklahoma State and a Chiefs game from earlier in the season. One photographer shot Nebraska-Missouri with a 3-D camera and another shot with digital for inside the paper.
The paper secured a sponsor for the 3-D glasses, which were inserted in each edition.
A full-page graphic in the A section detailed "The Emerging World of 3-D" for print, movies and television.
Kansas City.com also published a 3-D video and photo galleries, with images from sports including the Chiefs-49ers game, the NASCAR race at Kansas Speedway, the Royals' fan appreciation night and more from Missouri-Nebraska.
The equipment, Fannin said, was a consumer-grade 3-D camera, "with lots of tweaking and experimentation by our photo editor before we got it right."
He said circulation has reported anecdotally an increase in single-copy sales, though numbers have not been compiled yet.
"A few readers complained but most seemed to like it, and we got some terrific compliments as well," Fannin said. "It wasn't easy or inexpensive to execute, and I'm not sure if we'll do it again, but it does fit into our plans for giving readers surprises and special issues on a regular basis. Those things don't have to detract from the great journalism."
As an example, among the news stories on the front page was an investigative story that disclosed a probable mafia link in a high-profile, 40-year-old unsolved murder in Kansas City.
"If you're wondering: No, it wasn't illustrated in 3-D," Fannin said.
MID-ATLANTIC
Allentown Morning Call
The paper produced a special tab in September for the 50th anniversary of the Philadelphia Eagles' last NFL title. In the tab, Chuck Bednarik — who lives near Bethlehem — wrote an exclusive story on his memories from the 1960 season and the title game. Bednarik, a Pro Football Hall of Famer, played both ways for the Eagles in 1960. The paper also posted video on its website of Bednarik talking about the season.
SOUTHEAST
Dothan (Ala.) Eagle
The popular "Fearless Forecasters" are back in video for the third football season in a row. The weekly video has proven to be a popular item on the newspaper’s internet site (www.dothaneagle.com), as the five sports staff members are allowed 15 seconds to analyze and predict each game. If they don’t finish in 15 seconds, a buzzer goes off and the writer’s face leaves the screen. There is a high school version of five games to predict, and a college version of five games. In the print edition, the "Fearless Forecasters" predict eight college and eight high school games each week. The sports team also does weekly University of Alabama, Auburn University, Troy University and high school football preview videos with the beat writers and sports editor.
