Extra Credit Blog

This past Monday, San Jose State University’s magazine club presented a slideshow and held a discussion with editors from McSweeney’s Publishing, about their utopian newspaper: the San Francisco Panorama. Editors Jesse Nathan, Chris Ying, and Brian McCullen of San Francisco based McSweeney’s introduced what they believed was an extravagant example of what can keep newspaper alive.

Ying, who was the primary speaker throughout the presentation, explained what went into making their one-time issue, as well as where they pulled ideas to create the perfect paper. Ying explained that when designing the Panorama they took ideas from where newspapers were thriving, using large paper with full color in your face pictures.
Editor Brian McCullen explained newsprints ability to present graphics and text together outshines computers saying” Newspapers can give big detail all at once, computers can’t do that.”
They also took ideas from papers of yesteryear, using full spreads to display information in one large graphic, a design that has been killed out by printing costs.

Ying explained that spending the extra money by adding full-page graphics and large color photos throughout the Panorama, they bring excitement to readers, saying, “no matter what size your computer screen is, it’s just different to have that big photo in your face.”

In addition to large graphics throughout the paper, the panorama sets itself apart by its sheer size. To fit all the articles, essays, book reviews, and other media, the Panorama is over 300 pages long! The paper is made up of 10 main sections including a main news section, sports, two art sections, a food section, and a separate book review insert.
The Panorama’s main article is focused on the financial disaster that has become of the Bay Bridge construction. Ying explained such coverage on the construction is a first, and it was important to look at the financial details of something occurring in our own backyard.


Reading the Panorama is a visual adventure. The writing is extensive, the topics are different, and the graphics jump out at your face. My favorite piece was an insert to the sport section written by renowned novelist Steven King. As a long time Red Sox fan, King provided game-by-game commentary on the 2009 World Series, in which his rival team, the New York Yankees won. In addition to Kings writing, the designers of the panorama gave the layout a vintage appeal, using old-school sports sketching rather than real game photos. Another cool use of Panorama’s graphics was a diagram in their music and arts section, which featured all the different musical groups from San Francisco, arranged by time-period and genre.

The editors of McSweeney’s explain that while their extensive paper represents all the abilities of a paper, the work it takes to create such a paper, disregards the time restrictions involved in creating newsprint. “We set out to do this as a one time exercise. At the end of the day, people who put out daily newspapers get full credit.”
Ying claims they are not trying to reinvent the wheel, but rather repeat what used to be successful in newsprint, and show it can still be done.

As someone who shares disappointment in a thinning newspaper, I could really appreciate what the Panorama shows journalist students. While some papers are slimming down, cutting out science and art sections.
Mcsweeney’s has proved the newspaper is not dead; people will pay more, for more.