What were they reading around me?

**Image from Book 1: Transformation, of** **The Story**

One of the statements in my mobile storytelling book, The Story, reads:

The two tempos for mobile
Understanding how our audience consumes information is key.
It’s all about those two tempos: We start leaning forward the moment we wake up. Lean forward is all about getting snippets and deconstructed elements of stories. Then we decide to lean back to read some of those stories in more depth—the tapas leading to the full meal.

As I arrived at the Delta Sky Lounge at La Guardia Airport in New York, and before I settled with a small bowl of oatmeal and a cup of coffee, I surveyed my surroundings: a see of men of women tending to whatever they were eating or drinking, and one hand on their smartphones—(there were two tablet users, too)!

I admit that I let my oatmeal get a little cold, as I did a bit of reconnaissance to sample, as discreetly as I could, what people were looking at on their phones.

There were 7 individuals within visual reach, at about 9:15 in the morning and this is what I saw on their screens:

-Out of the 7, five were reading what appeared to be news stories on their phones. I recognized The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal from the typography. One person was watching a video from NBC’s Today Show. One person read emails, while another one was obviously engaged in a text chat. The two on the tablet were watching live news on their iPads.

Once I was on board, I continued my detective work: the woman sitting next to me on the flight from New York City to Chicago was actually following a food app (something related to how to cut a grapefruit for making a citrus salad. Yum!). The man to my left was reading a print edition of The Economist for a while, then switched to the phone to read The Wall Street Journal, an example of a multi media user, apparently feeling comfortable with both platforms.

Next to him, an older woman was watching a Netflix flick on her iPad.

From what I could see of those in front of me, one young woman had her smartphone set to music; the man next to her was reading Bloomberg on his phone, and further out, a young couple with a toddler, were using the smartphone to entertain their boy with a Thomas the Train episode.

The phone as constant companion

That headline is not a surprise to anyone. My little and informal study comes at a time when we in journalism debate how our newsrooms should change to accommodate different work flows, the appointment of new faces in the newsroom, in the form of content managers, and begin to conceptualize what we do for the smallest platform. Mobile first is no longer an option, it is essential for newsrooms that will survive.

The people around me Tuesday reminds me that it is so! I saw plenty of thumbs on the news—-and the rest.

From Monocle Weekend

https://monocle.com/minute/2019/09/21/

THE INTERROGATOR / EDITION 30

Mario García

Editorial consultant Mario García has advised the most important newsrooms in the world on design – and how best adapt to a digital transition. More than 700 publications, from The Wall Street Journal to the South China Morning Post, have received his strategic steer. Other than being an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of Journalism, he also runs his own consultancy firm: García Media. Nowadays his speciality is how digital devices influence narrative structure and consumption; his latest book, The Story, was written specifically to be read on a phone. Here, though, he confesses to a few analogue pleasures.

What they are saying about The Story!

The Story is here!

You can now download my new mobile storytelling book, The Story, from Apple Books at $6.99
This is Book 1 of a Trilogy! The other two books coming soon.
https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-story-volume-i/id1480169411

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. Order The Story by Mario Garcia, chief strategist for the redesign of over 700 newspapers around the world.

My chat with in Monocle Radio

Listen to my chat in Monocle Radio’s The Stack: Latest episode‘The Face’ and ‘The Story’:We welcome the return of the print version of ‘The Face’ and talk to legendary newspaper designer Mario Garcia about his latest book, ‘The Story’.
https://monocle.com/radio/shows/the-stack/368/play/

My interview with CNN en Español

I was a guest in the program Encuentro, hosted by Guillermo Arduino daily at CNN en Español. The interview was about how we read on mobile devices and my introduction of my new mobile storytelling book, The Story, to a Spanish-language audience.

García: Si tienes una buena historia, la gente la va a leer

Mario’s speaking engagements

Presentation of The Story at the Sociedad Interamericana de Prensa (SIP) in Miami, as the organization celebrates its 75th anniversary serving the Latin American Press, Miami.

October 4, 2019