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Comment by Geoffrey M. Giordano on April 14, 2009 at 16:27

In 2002, during one of John Paul II's health scares, I conceived a 12-page special section in the event of his death. I created a skeleton budget (lifetime bio, his doctrinal legacy, where the church might go after his passing, the global phenomenon of his papacy, etc.) then mocked up the section. I sold our managing editor on the idea, and she asked the religion team to flesh out the budget. Stellar religion writer Gary Stern delivered truly compelling pieces. I designed the section with a narrow rail of information starting at the top left of Page 2 and running on the outside of each page all the way to the back cover. And, I photo edited a two-page image spread, including "mini photo essays" anchoring the bottom of each page featuring the pope and the U.S. presidents he met, and the pope and some of the notables he encountered. We parked the section in QPS and updated and proofed constantly until JP2's death. The paper won an award for breaking coverage of his death.