COLUMN: No more shades of gray

From Adam Mark's, "Mark My Words," Fall '96 From Adam Mark's, "Mark My Words," Fall '96Pardon our dust -- we're redecorating. A dab of red here, a splash of blue there. Among other colors, of course. We're not exactly reinventing the wheel here. Nearly every professional newspaper and magazine in the country already publishes in full color. But the number of daily, full-color college newspapers can be counted on two hands. And the number of Ivy League color newspapers jumped today from zero to one. So we're proud to be ahead of the curve. But color comes with a price that's not only financial. The whole newspaper now has to be done by 1:30 a.m., rather than 3:30 a.m. The size, shape and placement of color elements must be locked hours earlier, by 10 p.m. This deadline shift will not only cramp our relaxed and flexible style, but it will also preclude us from running as many late-breaking stories and photos. In addition, shooting color photos and designing color graphics is far more complicated than doing the same in black-and-white. And accurate color reproduction is, in fact, rocket science. Despite these hurdles, color will only broaden our horizons. The DP prides itself on preparing students for careers in journalism and related professions. Keeping up with trends in the newspaper business and taking advantage of cutting-edge technology means that our writers, photographers and designers are more equipped than students from most other college newspapers to succed in today's job market. Indeed, because college newspapers are smaller and leaner than our professional competitors, they often pioneer the use of new technologies. Several years ago, for example, the DP was a test site for a text-management system now used by professional newspapers around the country. And most college newspapers were faster than professional papers to set up interactive editions World Wide Web. But because publishing daily color is extremely expensive, college newspapers have been slow to make this change. Furthermore, as the cost of newsprint rises and as advertisers turn to different means to get their messages out -- including the Internet -- most college newspapers won't see color for a long time, if ever. I should mention what's in this change for you, the reader. From now on, when you pick up the DP every morning, it will be more dynamic, more informational and more reader-friendly. Color is more attractive to the eye and it carries infinitely more information than black and white. Plus, photos and "infographics" are usually more legible and stimulating in color than in black and white. After all, reading the DP, or any newspaper, for that matter, should be enlightening and enjoyable at the same time. For those of you who've grown up on The New York Times and The Washington Post, who may think color is a cancer on any newspaper, I have bad news. Both the Times and Post are planning to publish color every day, too, by the end of 1998. Like the Times and Post, as long as we can modernize our look without sacrificing the integrity of our content, we've got nothing to lose. Although the DP is printed by the same plant that produces USA Today, rest assured that the former will look nothing like the latter. In updating our design to meet the full potential of color, we went out of our way to make the DP classier. We were inspired by several professional and college publications, including the Philadelphia Inquirer, Variety, the University Daily Kansan, and my hometown newspaper, The Palm Beach Post. Newspapers across the country are rushing to color in order to remain competitive with other media. But the media market isn't too competitive at Penn, so we're mostly competing with ourselves -- and we recognize that this situation carries enormous responsibility. We'll do whatever we can to avoid becoming stale. And if color entices but one more student to read our news and sports pages before doing the crossword, then I consider this venture worthwhile. So enjoy the "new" DP, and let us know what you think. Is it too garish, too conservative, or just right? The novelty will wear off, I suspect, and in a few months or years you'll probably forget what the old DP looked like. New students, at least, will think the DP's been color forever. They'll take for granted that our pictures of College Green are actually green. And they'll never know that for 112 years, the DP covered the Red and Blue in black and white.