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Oct. 11th Covering the financial crisis in Italy: Il Secolo shows its front pages

”A challenge each day”

Massimo Gentile, design director of Il Secolo XIX of Genoa, is no stranger to splashy front pages, hard news, and tons of infographics and photos. After all, he came to Il Secolo after years as art director of one of South America’s most colorful and design driven dailies, Folha de S. Paulo.

However, as he writes me today: “Some of these strategies used on the front page of Il Secolo I have used many times before, but for Il Secolo it is something new.”

Massimo has brought tons of changes to Il Secolo XIX in the past two years since he joined, giving it a greater sense of visual coherence, and working hard in the newsroom to convert journalists to becoming more visual journalists.

“It is tough job,” Massimo says, “but we are winning, and these pages show you what is happening here. I am happy.”

So am I, as I look at these.

How other Italians daily covered the crisis

In this example, you will see Il Secolo XIX to the left, as compared to front pages of other Italian dailies, covering the specific news event as related to the financial crisis.

This first example from Monday is a classic: a strong infographic into a big and dramatic photo. The man in the corner is Mr. Trichet, president of the European Central Bank. It seems that he really doesn’t know very well what to do: to cut tax rates, or not to cut?

The Tuesday front

In this second day we put the focus on the number: how big the $1,4 trillion is? This solution is a mix between tipograpy (the number with eleven zeros) and illustration (the dollar bill).We put an explanation too: this number means 10% of the US annual growth, and 8 months of the Italian production.

The Wednesday front

In the third day there is another good (i hope) idea to explain the crisis: losing $1,4 trillion, how many countries will disappear from the world map? Those are few examples world areas where the annual growth doesn’t achieve $1,4 trilliion:
Canada, Central America, South America (without Brazil),Middle East to Central Asia (from Turkey to Afghanistan), India and Pakistan
and more ….”

Mario to speak in Amsterdam Oct. 17

I am honored to be part of the World Association of Newspaper’s 11th Readership Conference, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Oct. 16-17.  The program is built as The Audience-Building Conference for Publishers, Editors, Marketeers and other Senior Executives..  The conference includes a keynote presentation titled The Eternal Power of Print (Why print will endure beyond the digital revolution and remain a part of our private and business lives forever! The business implications for media publishers of a bright future for print.) by William Powers, media columnist, National Journal magazine (Atlantic Media), USA .

My own presentation is titled A Successful Audience Strategy and will deal with the path of the story in a multiplatform world and focusing on specific segments of the readership.  I will have coverage of the conference in this blog next week as it happens.

For registration and full program information:
http://www.wan-press.org/amsterdam2008/home.php

Flying to Lagos, Nigeria, today!

TheMarioBlog posting #117

 

Posted by Dr. Mario R. Garcia on October 11, 2008