The Times’ inaugural coverage: Where’s the color? Why that headline?

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Though The Times’ Jan. 21 coverage of the inauguration brought sold-out newsstands and multiple press runs, it also spurred some quibbles and questions, with multiple comments made along three lines: lack of color in Wednesday’s special section; allegations of a missing president in a montage on Sunday’s special section; and criticisms of the Jan. 21 headline.

• Some readers complained there were too few full-color photographs in Wednesday’s extra main section. Wrote Anne M. Brown of Fullerton: ‘Except for the color photograph on the front page and the crowd shot on the special section, there were no color photographs presenting the first couple during the inauguration or the attire worn by the first couple for the inauguration balls. Nothing to capture the event in the bold, striking way that color would have. You show the Hollywood stars in all their radiance when attending award shows, but this historic event is relegated to black and white.’

As Brown pointed out, Page A1 featured a huge (full color) photo of the president being sworn in, but Pages A19 to A46, a separate section labeled ‘The Inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama,’ included only seven news pages with color. Blame it on the capacity of the presses: Printing a page in color requires that it be processed four times, which limits the number of such pages for a day’s edition. Editors and the advertising department juggle which pages will get color. (Those photos and more were online and in color.)

• Of the main headline on Jan. 21, ‘Obama Calls for Hope in Face of Cold Reality,’ with the deck headline reading, ‘A tearful yet jubilant crowd hangs on the president’s words as they echo across the National Mall,’ Christopher and Barbara Haire wrote that they were disappointed: ‘The L.A. Times missed the mark with their sober headline for their offering about the inauguration of an American president. People wanted a headline to celebrate with, and one they could pass down to their children and grandchildren; one that cried out about this mark in history, this momentous event. It did nothing for us. Sorry!’

Executive Editor John Arthur oversees the front page; senior copy chief Tim Lynch wrote the headline. They knew the fact that this was America’s first inauguration of an African American president meant the page would be a historical keepsake. But they wanted to balance the unprecedented nature of the event with the breaking news too -- what the new president said. How they did that, and what other newspapers showed on their fronts, follows the jump.

Lynch notes the third consideration: He had to find language that would fit the space ordered up by the design desk. So his three goals in writing the main headline: ‘Find language to fit the specs (the larger the point size, the more difficult the challenge), reflect the historical nature of the event, and capture the dueling moods of hope and concern highlighted in the story.’ He and Arthur say the photo chosen, Carolyn Cole’s photo of a beaming new president with his right hand raised, helped them reach their goals. Lynch says, ‘The main headline used language from the speech, and the subordinate decks returned to the hopeful mood and tried to provide a sense of place. The main photo, of course, powerfully showed the historic nature of the event.’

Newspapers around the world took various tacks, as did newspapers across the country. Some were spare on words, such as the front page showing past presidents and simply the number ‘44’ (the Greeley, Colo., Tribune) and Denver’s Rocky Mountain News, which ran only a photo. A number of others quoted from Obama’s speech. There were headlines with variations of ‘Hope Over Fear’ (Florida Today in Melbourne, Fla.) and ‘A New Way Forward’ (The Press of Atlantic City, N.J.). Wordier headlines included the Washington Post headline, with ‘Obama Takes Charge: Nation Asked to Begin Task of ‘Remaking America’’; The New York Times, ‘Obama Takes Oath, and Nation in Crisis Embraces the Moment’; and the Wall Street Journal, ‘President Obama: A Day of History as New Leader Urges Unity Amid ‘Raging Storms’ of War and Recession.’

Ultimately, Arthur says, The Times’ headline was better than most, by combining the historical note with the breaking news: ‘Other papers used the photo of them walking down Pennsylvania Avenue. We considered that, but we went with the historic photo, and went with the speech in the headline.’

• Finally, the cover of Sunday’s pre-inauguration special section, a montage of past presidents with Barack Obama front and center, led to more than two dozen readers seeking correction along the lines of Mark Weissman of Rancho Palos Verdes. He wrote: ‘In your montage of all our current and past presidents, and the president-elect, I found only 42 of the 43 past presidents. Who is apparently seated next to JFK and hiding behind President-Elect Obama?’

No one was hiding; the key on Page S3 explained that because Grover Cleveland served two nonconsecutive terms, only 43 men were pictured. (That presidential montage, by Ed Lam, is interactive online.) Though it might sound surprising to some that lots of readers took the time to do a nose count on that montage, it didn’t surprise editors, some of whom joked beforehand that a hot line should be set up to handle the calls from readers who would overlook the note or (as Weissman said when he wrote back) forget that matter of Cleveland’s two terms.

Photo: From The Times’ Jan. 21 front page (a cropped version of the photo ran in the paper), Michelle Obama holds the Bible as Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th president. Credit: Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times