One of the few papers I’ve seen that used a billboard approach on the first day is the Rockford Register Star (Rockford, Ill.). The Thursday edition opened with a good visual logo and a quote from the president. The next visual was actually a package containing the main head, a deck, and the full-width picture of downtown Baghdad. The headline, “We are at war,” certainly communicated to the readers. The rest of the page was made up of billboard and explanatory items pointing to the inside. At the very bottom of the page, the ad had disappeared and a strong plug for the Web site had taken its place. Overall, this package was great, an attention-getter that gave lots of organized information.

Day two used a more conventional presentation, starting with the war logo, another picture from Baghdad and a head-and-deck combination. The war package was another billboard to the inside but the package size was only about half the page. The rest of the page was a briefs rail down the left side and three local stories and art at the bottom half of the page. The ad was back and the Web site pointer moved into the billboard package.