May 13, 2008
Today’s Southern Metropolis Daily ran a special edition about the Sichuan earthquake. A few changes were made on the front page design to cope with this special occasion.
On the top, the usually garish red-and-yellow-colored masthead “Southern Metropolis Daily” gave way to the headline reading “Shock China” (震撼中国) printed in big, bold, black type. The masthead has retreated to the top right corner and was printed in a size much smaller than usual.
The big photo in the middle shows a father trying to identify his child from a line of dead bodies. The news is about a middle school in Dujiangyan, Sichuan Province where students were buried by the ruins of a collapsed school building. There were more than four hundred students in class when the earthquake happened; over 50 of them have already been confirmed dead. A detailed account in English can be found here.
At the top of the photo, the number of the death toll: 9,219 screams for attention in a stark white color against the dark background.
Down at the bottom, an area usually reserved for clients who pay top rates for a page-one advertisement, still contains an advertisement, but it has been craftily tempered to look less distasteful and more appropriate for the solemn aura of the whole page:
The ad reads: “Feel for the victims. Rebuild homes. Baoli Real Estate holding hands with South Metropolis launching a big emergency earthquake relief action.”