The Lead Image

One of my favorite parts of the design of www.lasvegassun.com is that the main "image" on the site is often a video. This lead image sometimes is a stand-alone video, without much of a print component. Other times, the image is attached to an article, and the video is used as supplement to the article, or vice-versa.

Either way, I like how we can make the video the lead image for a story. With the video as a top image, you can view the video right from the homepage, in small screen or full screen view. Also, you can click on the headline of the article, read that, and then watch the video on the screen with the article. This gives the reader/viewer several options, and hopefully keeps them clicking around on the site for a while.

The other day, a video I did about a local basketball team living together was the lead image on the website. This story was a supplement to an article one of our writers did about the basketball team. The video and article worked well together. They also were fine one their own. You didn't have to see one to understand the other.

Making the video the lead image is a fascinating way to attract some more viewers and liven up the homepage. When I see a video as the main image on a newspaper website, it seems a little more attractive and well done. ESPN.com uses the video as the main image all the time now. ESPN recently rolled out it's new redesigned website, and it made a larger space for the lead image, also making it a video player. Before, the video player was a smaller screen on the right side of the page.

Rarely is the Sun's lead image only a single photo. It is almost always a video or photo gallery, giving people a little more than they anticipate.