New York Times front page lists 1,000 coronavirus deaths to mark tragic 100,000 milestone

• Sunday’s front page for The New York Times highlighted the tragic milestone of 100,000 coronavirus deaths in the United States.
• The Times listed the names of 1,000 people who succumbed to COVID-19 — which is only 1% of the total death toll.
• The staff sought to visualize the extent of the loss by listing people’s names, ages, and facts about their lives.

It has only been about five months since the first US coronavirus case was reported, but the death toll is set to hit the 100,000 mark — a tragic milestone that was highlighted by the front page of The New York Times this Sunday.

The newspaper listed the names of 1,000 people who succumbed to COVID-19, which represented only 1% of the 100,000 mark.

Each name on the list had a miniature obituary that noted their age, city and state, and brief personal information.

For instance, The Times commemorated June Beverly Hill, an 85-year-old woman from Sacramento, by writing that “no one made creamed potatoes or fried sweet corn the way she did.”

Bassey Offiong, a 25-year-old man from Michigan, “saw friends at their worst but brought out their best.” Orlando Moncada, a 56 -year-old man from Bronxville, “left Peru and grabbed hold of the American dream.”

The front-page subheadline read, “They were not simply names on a list. They were us.”

One man, however, was listed incorrectly. Jordan Driver Haynes, 27, was described on the list as a “generous young man with a delightful grin.” But his cause of death was ruled as a homicide, not COVID-19.

The Times will issue the correction in later editions, according to a CNN report.

The newspaper staff, which involved a team of editors and three graduate student journalists, said they compiled information from online obituaries and death notices that noted COVID-19 as the cause of death.

Assistant editor Simone Landon said that it was important to tackle the tragic 100,000 mark.

Landon shared how she and her colleagues felt “a little bit of a fatigue with the data,” both among themselves and the public. So, they decided on a front page that would visualize the extent of the loss.

Tom Bodkin, the newspaper’s chief creative officer, noted that Sunday’s front page is “certainly a first in modern times” that showed no images or graphics.

Source: Business Insider