garciamedia

Dec. 4th In Philadelphia: moving philly.com to the top of the page

Updated Sunday, Dec. 6 at 02:54 EST

TAKEAWAY: As we continue to make recommendations to The Philadelphia Inquirer, we are happy to see the presence of philly.com onto the front page of the Inky.  Promoting their excellent online content in print is one first, robust step towards progress. AND: Taping the Monocle Radio Christmas Show in London with Tyler BruléPLUS: The New York Times T-Magazine introduces new look online today

Front page of today’s Bild am Sonntag, Dec. 6, 2009

Centerfold photo treat titled Lady Whale: Woman in pursue of whales worldwide

Who is Jacky?

Jacky belongs to Frank Deville, of Luxembourg. Each Sunday, Jacky makes his picks from the colorful Bild am Sonntag and shares them with us here.

At the Inquirer

The promo for philly.com appears to the far right, top of page one of The Philadelphia Inquirer

We continue to exchange ideas with the folks from The Philadelphia Inquirer, which, as readers of this blog are aware, has filed for bankruptcy proceedings but continues to publish daily.  While it attempts to solve its financial woes, The Inquirer’s team looks for ways to improve and to attract new, younger readers.

During our visit of last month we strongly recommended a greater presence of philly.com content into the printed editions, something not happening at the moment.

We are happy to hear from Project Leader Ryan Davis this week, who sends us a pdf of the Inky’s front page with, at last, a good promotional spot at the top for the excellent content of philly.com.  We believe that this is the way to go in bringing the print and digital editions more aligned with each other.

Considering that the philly.com content is strong, young and unique, those page one promos should attract many new users.

It’s a start.  We will continue to report our progress with the Inquirer and its team.

Note of interest about the Philadelphia project:
Some of you write me mails asking when the “redesign” of the Inquirer will be launched.  Well, there is NO redesign as such. This is a rethinking, a slow, evolutionary, step by step journey into a lot of soul searching in the newsroom—-how print and digital platforms accommodate each other, how the advantages of each are explored, how print readers can become aware of the wealth of offerings available in philly.com.  Ultimately, it is about a newsroom thinking as ONE storytelling unit, not two or three.

In that sense, what we are doing in Philadelphia should serve as a possible model for others.  This is not a redesign with a timeline and a splashy launch of a product that shows cosmetic changes that are highly visible.  Instead, we are providing two types of medicine here: the one needed for the patient to start recoverring fast, and the preventive medicine that will keep the patient afloat and moving for years to come.

It is this formula, if you will, that prompted me to join forces with the Philadelphia folks.

it is this formula also that I hope others will be encouraged to follow in their newsrooms.  No splashy, one-day redesign.  Instead, a lifetime of good habits that provide the perfect fit for today’s media environment.

The Philadelphia Story will continue.

For previous blog posts about our work with The Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News and philly.com:
http://www.garciamedia.com/blog/articles/the_philadelphia_story_entry_6_we_present_positive_reactions/

 

Another Monocle Radio show with Tyler Brulé

Mario and Tyler Brulé during taping of the Christmas edition of The Monocle Winter Series.

 

I was honored by another invitation from Tyler Brulé to appear on his Monocle Radio show.

This time I managed to make it to London to participate in person at a taping of the show, which took place at The Hospital Studio, Covent Garden.

Tyler’s other guest for this show was Tara Bernherd, Chairman and Head of Design of established Interior architecture practice: Target Living.  Also present: Monocle’s editor Andrew Tuck, and culture editor Rob Bound. Live music was provided by Swedish songstress: Titiyo

Tyler guided his guests through a discussion that touched upon a variety of topics, such as the importance of branding for media and beyond, the future of free distribution newspapers, the costs of producing good journalism today and, of course, our predictions for 2010.
. The show will air on December 18th on iTunes and on the Monocle website—-www.monocle.com—- as part of The Monocle Winter Series.

 

T-Magazine introduces new online look today

The most beautiful T ever designed? Perhaps. Writing about the new look of T-Magazine today gives us another chance to display its logo here

Fans of the New York Times T-Magazine——count me in—-are in for a treat: T-Magazine introduces a new online look today.  It is classic, clean, elegant and provides the appropriate environment for those fabulous and stylish photos to appear center stage.

In fact, the architecture of the site is such that while the left and right hand columns scroll up and down, the main frame in the center allows users to slide photos right or left.  The main topics are displayed there, quite visually.

Special treat in today’s T-Magazine: Steven Heller, former NY Times art director, writes about how he anticipates this time of the year to receive Christmas cards from designers all over.  He shows some of his favorites.

Take a look!

TheMarioBlog post #431

Posted by Dr. Mario R. Garcia on December 04, 2009