Add a Comment

Comment by Geoffrey M. Giordano on April 14, 2009 at 16:42

In 1999, I was put in charge of our special millennium A section. I conceived the overall look, and away we went. What happens when a solid plan is in place? Many lingering stories resolve, of course. When Yeltsin resigned and the weeks-old airplane hostage crisis came to an end, we had a little reshaping to do. Some in the newsroom favored a more traditional lede/centerpiece/off-lede approach. I created this look, preserving a four-column Y2K centerpiece while running Yeltsin and hijack "megarefers" down the left side, each with a photo, and each over the fold. We'd known Yeltsin was going to resign, and while interesting, the hijack resolution didn't trump either that or Y2K. And, we still didn't know how Y2K was going to play out (as these international stories broke in the early afternoon). I made my case to then-editor Bob Ritter during our impromptu news meeting. "You're a hell of a newsman," he said when I finished my pitch.