Updated Sunday, Sept. 6, 2009, 07:55 EST
TAKEAWAY: The newspaper of 2020? Well, some of us gave that a try during one of those “newspaper of the future” exercises in 1999. How does my model fare in ten years later? See the Pure Design download today for publications of the future. SUNDAY UPDATES: Jacky, the cute Luxemburger pooch, makes his Bild Am Sonntag picks of the day.
It’s Sunday and Jacky is here
Jacky has gotten up early and performed his Sunday morning ritual in Luxembourg—reading the colorful Bild Am Sonntag cover to cover. Here is what picked his interest today in that German newspaper—read by about 5 million people (and some canines!):
With a headline that reads “Unfair birthdays,” the editors compare how time and aging have treated two of the cinema’s most distinguished divas: Brigitte Bardot (not so good) and Sophia Loren (glamorously well). Both actresses turn 75 this month
The story about the aging of the divas poses the question of how much aging has to do with one’s genes, or how we take care of our bodies.
The “small picture” phenomenon that we see in so many newspapers comes to Bild Am Sonntag. A photo package about “photos without comment” displays dozens of smallish photos on the page.
This is a trend we begin to see everywhere, including some trendy New York Times pages.
Of course, Jacky picked a human interest story about the oldest dog alive. Like the rest of us, Jacky searched for tips on longevity.
Entertainment: a story about three aging German singers and how they fare as senior citizens. Headline: The Three Wisemen of Tralala
Who is Jacky?
Jacky belongs to Frank Deville. The Luxembourg-based pooch is an “avid reader” of the German newspaper, Bild Am Sonntag. Every Sunday Jacky picks stories and interesting graphics in Bild Am Sonntag , the German newspaper.
Publications of the future
Here was my concept for the newspaper of 2020—as seen from the perspective of a 1999 “newspaper of the future” seminar at the American Press Institute. A lot of it holds still today—-or tomorrow?
Again in 2005, I worked closely with our Garcia Media Latinoamerica team in Buenos Aires (Rodrigo Fino and Paula Ripoll) to create a concept for a futuristic newspaper: one more time we made it an A4 compact format, a combination of longer and shorter texts; great page one navigation. We called it “inBrief”. Today, I would not attach the word Brief to a futuristic newspaper. “Come Read” would be a better label. That’s the only change I would make.
Oh, to predict the future! It is an exercise that so many organizations and individuals get engage in from time to time. From ancient times, man has had a fascination with gazing into the crystal ball to see what appears.
When the American Press Institute invited a group of editors/designers (including the late Edmund Arnold, possibly the first newspaper design guru ever), we spent three days in Reston, Virginia, presenting our versions of the newspaper of 2020.
Ten years later I look at my rendition of the newspaper of the future, and I think it still holds:
1. Yes, there will be newspapers in 2020—-that’s the good news.
2. I continue to think it will be small, and getting smaller.
3. I continue to think that there will be short texts for navigation, especially in the area of reaffirmation news. However, where I see a different picture from when I did this mock up is that there will be longer texts, as I think readers will come to print for analysis/meditation/explanation.
4. There will be color everywhere—-including type. I would emphasize this more even today.
5. The role of advertising will be much greater than it is today. I will also reemphasize this point.
The Impact of the Compact
Pure Design: Download entire section: Type
Download entire first section of Pure Design: Words
Now that I have fully presented the first of six sections of Pure Design on TheMarioBlog, I am offering the entire initial section, “Words,” available for download—all 33 pages of it. This may be useful for those of you saving or printing out Pure Design and will be done following each of the remaining sections. At the end of our journey through words, type, layout, color, pictures, and process, I will publish the entirety of Pure Design in one file.
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TheMarioBlog posting #354