I like the looks and the content of The Post’s latest product: By The Way.
With clean, eye catching design—with editor Amanda Finnegan and under the art direction of Kat Rudell Brooks and with design director Rachel Orr —By The Way has the look and feel of retro post cards, but with an easy to navigate format that is newsy with trending topics as in “8 questions about the tourist deaths in the Dominican Republic, answered,” but also offers a variety of City Guides from Baltimore to Mexico City and Reykjavik. These guides emphasize “A local’s guide to….” and allow you to meet your local, who will take you on a tour emphasizing such moods as “low key” , the 3 things locals think you should know.
For example, in Reykjavik, it pays to know that “showering rules at the pools are nonnegotiable. Everyone must wash thoroughly without their swimsuit before entering the pools or hot tubs. No exceptions, ever.” Ummmmmm, not for the prude at heart, but good advice from a local. For Prague, the local reminds you that “tourist traps are real. Watch out for taxi services that will attempt to rip off foreigners and exchange offices offering bad rates.” Good to know, but not a surprise for seasoned global travelers.
While in Prague, the local guide suggests Bistro 8 for breakfast. “If you come for brunch on the weekend to the Vinohrady location, take a stroll to the nearby Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord.”
I think this new product will be a hit with readers, even those who never leave home. So much to savor about each location. The old travel postcard made for the digital age.
What makes By The Way unique
- Engages with locals who offer authentic tips based on first hand experience.
- Offers more than traditional travel pieces. Here you find snippets that guide you quickly through the content: Staying, Eating, Sightseeing. Travel journalism for the digital age is here.
- Appeals to millennials, but older readers (such as myself) will encounter the content quite helpful, and, remember, we old travelers usually have more time—and money, so I am sure The Post is banking on getting readers of all ages on board By The Way.
- Lives within WashingtonPost.com, but also will have ByTheWay.com.
- It is highly visual, heavily designed, with a weekly newsletter that will come out on Thursday afternoons, and then will also have Instagram [@ByTheWay].
Read more about By The Way….
Mario’s speaking engagements
Here are places where I will be taking the message of mobile storytelling in the weeks ahead:
July 11, Florida Media Conference, St. Petersburg, FL, Keynote for editors: The mobile first newspaper strategy.
Mario’s weekend rituals…..
Monocle interviews me about what I do on a typical weekend (is there such a thing? Not for someone like me who is seldom in the same location twice. But I gave it my best shot, for what may come as a normal weekend, when I am home in New York! Enjoy.
https://monocle.com/minute/2019/04/27/
Pre-order The Story
The newspaper remains the most powerful source of storytelling on the planet. But technology threatens its very existence. To survive, the Editor must transform, adapt, and manage the newsroom in a new way. Find out how, pre-orderThe Story by Mario Garcia, chief strategist for the redesign of over 700 newspapers around the world.
Order here:
https://thaneandprose.com/shop-the-bookstore?olsPage=products%2Fthe-story
An interview of interest
http://www.itertranslations.com/blog/2019/3/11/fd60ybflpvlqrgrpdp5ida5rq0c3sp
TheMarioBlog post #3077