Newspaper Markup

In my PR Publications this last week, we were asked to do a newspaper markup to highlight the different typesetting elements of a newspaper. We were given the elements of mastheads, headlines, decks, subheads, bylines, body texts, photo cutlines, pull quotes, dividers and jump lines. Most of these elements were were visible in The Oklahoma Daily.

The masthead is the title of the newspaper and the top of the newspaper. I noticed that this section has a divider that separates it from the first story. The masthead is important because it introduces the paper’s most important stories as well as tells the date.

The next typesetting element was headlines for the two stories on the front page. These headlines are generally only a few words and are used to convey the general message of the article. The part that is located under the headline is known as the deck. The deck is used to further explain the article. It usually goes into deeper detail. The element that occurs below the headline and deck is the byline, which shows who wrote the article. These three are all located at the top of the article

Another typesetting element that is important is the body text and the photo cutline. The body text takes place under the headline and deck and it is where the article located. Sometimes in the middle of the body text there is a photo with a cutline. These two elements take up a majority of the page.

The last typesetting element is the pull quote. Pull quotes are generally located in the middle of body text and they are used to emphasize a certain quote by the main speaker. This element is helpful whenever a source gives a great quote that sums up the article.

These typesetting elements are helpful and can be used to enhance the design of the page of the newspaper. I thoroughly enjoyed this activity and it allowed me to understand how important it is to effectively layout a newspaper page. I think that this assignment has given me a better understanding of typesetting layout. In conclusion, I liked this assignment and it reiterated to me the importance of page design and layout.