JOHN F. MONAHAN, 55 años. Falleció el pasado 19 de marzo. Macintosh hardcore head: Apple College Information Network, Deadline Mac, MacTrack. 1987: Coordinador de gráficos en Gannett (USAToday). 9 noviembre de 1989: nombrado responsable de Infografía de The Associated Press. Tenía 34 años. Reemplazaría a Don DeMaio. Un pionero de la infografía moderna norteamericana, junto con George Rorick, Jeff Goertzen, Nigel Holmes, Matt Carroll, John Grimwade, Jeff Dionise, Karl Gude… RIP.
Láminas de las JJOO de Barcelona 92. Trabajo conjunto de AP con EL MUNDO. El equipo de Mario Tascón (Juan Velasco, Samuel Velasco, Gorka Sampedro, Modesto J. Carrasco, Ulises Culebro, Jeff Goertzen…) junto con el equipo de Monahan, encabezado por Karl Gude Estas láminas marcaron un antes y un después en la infografía en España. Todavía hoy son una referencia mundial cuando se habla de JJOO.
Frank Batten acaba de fallecer (1927-2009). Llegó a tener un imperio periodístico en su bolsillo: 9 diarios (Virginia Pilot, The Ledger-Dispatch) , 100 publicaciones y dos televisiones (KLAS-TV, News Channel 5).
Para la infografía ha quedado como el creador de The Weather Channel en 1982, un canal de televisión dedicado 24 horas a la información meteorológica. ¿Quién va a seguir un programa del tiempo durante todo el día? Éxito total.
En 1982, George Rorick también divisó la utilidad del mapa del tiempo en los periódicos. Si tiene éxito en la televisión, ¡cómo no lo va a tener en la prensa! En la última página del USA Today. A todo color. Un icono de la infografía moderna.
Para los fanáticos del tiempo, el libro publicado por USAToday en 1992, The Weather Book, todo un clásico. Por Jack Williams.
Para los interesados, aquí una historia interesante de la infografía, por Michael Friendly. Milestones in the history of thematic cartography, statistical Graphics, and data visualization.
George, ¿es posible crear un departamento integrado de Infografía en 2009 como el que tú creaste en KRT en 1993, pero esta vez dentro de la redacción de un periódico?
KRT ’94: George Rorick, el “boss” de la infografía en Knight Ridder Tribune (WDC) en uno de sus viajes a Pamplona, propuso comenzar a desarrollar una agencia de gráficos para Europa. Se lllamó CRUINMO (iniciales de Alvaro Moncada, Quique Infante y yo mismo). Antes de terminar la carrera pude hacer unas prácticas de seis meses en la sede central, en Washington DC.
KRT memories KRT Graphics was my first real experience with a graphic information team. And what a team!
Jane Scholz was the Editor-in-Chief of the Knight Ridder Tribune Information Services and George Rorick, the leading director. He created a sophisticated but simple department to develop infographics for print, television and web. It was 1994. Nobody had talked yet about integrated newsrooms or digital journalism. But KRT had a seminal group of talent people working together to serve all media. They were and still are some of the best information journalists in the USA.
George Rorick led KRT Graphics into new worlds and new dimensions in 1993 with the introduction of three new products: the European Graphics Service, the Faces in the News caricature service and the News in Motion television service.
Amazing. Crazy. I always think of George Rorick as a visionary.
I knew KRT from the print pages of the Spanish newspapers that published their graphics. On 1992, Jeff Goertzen moved to Spain to develop a Information Graphic team at el Mundo. Jeff had worked with George in KRT and had a solid background in graphics. I didn’t work at el Mundo yet; I was studying Journalism at the University of Navarra and met Goertzen and Rorick at the first Malofiej awards.
So, in 1994, with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in journalism in my hands, I was ready to work in graphics. Rorick wanted to create an European division of KRT graphics: KRT Europe. I met him and Ole Rode Jensen, talent editor from Denmark, in Washington DC and we started to do the job with the help of all the KRT team.
The overall group was organized on small sub teams: Edition, Research, Illustration and Print Graphics, TV motion Graphics (News in Motion), Web and KRT Europe. I remember Wes Albers, the leading editor and nowadays the deputy editor of McClatchy, Patricia Carr or Brenna Maloney (now graphics editor for the Washington Post).
Ron Coddington
Bill Pitzer and Bill Baker was in charge of News and Motion. From the infographic team I have to mention Ron Coddington, now deputy managing editor at Chronicle of Higher Education, and Jeff Dionise, now vice president of design at USA Today. They help me a lot with my poor English and information graphic skills. A million thanks to them.
Years later, George Rorick moved to Spain too to lead el Mundo team about 2001. It was great to meet him again and work together.
Not only was KRT a school of journalism and graphics in the States, but also in all the world.
‘End of an Era’, Charles Apples
In 2004, KRT shut down News in Motion.
In 2006, the McClatchy company bought Knight-Ridder. KRT became MCT.
In 2009, MCT ended the European Graphics Service.
