Making A Good Mix | How pictures brighten up the page

Joaquin Sorolla (close up).

Do you ever wonder why papers and magazines publish the things they do?

Sometimes it’s to create a good mix – on the page, across the whole publication or over time.

I used to love thinking about the mix.

Anyway, yesterday The Times had a story about a hugely successful Spanish artist who died 100 years ago.

(Joaquin Sorolla, since you ask – on World News, page 33 of the print edition.)

I had never heard of him, and that was more or less the point of the story – 100 years after he died he’s been forgotten.

And… the story also functioned as an excellent way to brighten up a page otherwise concerned with an American court case and controversial new building work in the German government district.

I’m not a Times editor so I don’t know why that particular story was published. But I liked it and I drew this picture of the page.