This is the weekend edition of TheMarioBlog and will be upgraded as needed. The next blog post is Monday, Feb. 15.
Newsletters are a sure way for us to get information quickly and, especially, easy to consume on mobile devices such as the small screen of a phone.
We had already enjoyed The New York Times‘ Impeachment Briefing, and now it is back. If you are like me you are not spending hours glued to the TV for live coverage of the proceedings, even though this time around the videos shown as evidence of the January 6 attack of the Capitol have been quite interesting, and, in some cases, videos we had not seen before.
The Times‘Briefing is well organized, informative and segmented in a way that allows for quick scanning.
Simplicity and clarity are the foundations of the Times’ Impeachment Briefing. First, notice the segments, with a headline that is large and creates hierarchy, following by indented snippets of information that highlight main topics. There are no visual assets, but they are not needed here. Well organized and placed type does the job!
While on the Times: Someone is having fun with this marketing campaign for The New York Times. Is everyone as surprised as I am to see the Times brand acting this informally fun? Love it. Keep it up. The price is right, too.
Stuff we like
Oh, The Economist never ceases to amaze. Here is a cover story from this week. The visual tells the story. The headline is clever and seductive. The use of black and white for the illustration just perfect.
For Germany’s Sudkurier—one of our client newspapers in beautiful Lake Konstanz, on the border with Switzerland—a rare front page, a departure from the norm, a story about “masks” but not the type that we all wear to avoid getting contaminated with Covid19.
Instead, according to editor in chief Stefan Lutz, this would have been the time with Konstanz holds its annual carnival, and people would have been wearing many of these masks. Because of Covid 19, the carnival has been cancelled, so the editors decided to display colorful masks on the front page of Sudkurier, with an explanation for each mask inside. A great way to bring a bit of the excitement of the carnival to readers who are, like everyone else in the planet, suffering from Covid fatigue.
In the words of the editor:
In normal times thousands of people celebrate carneval on pur streets, in Konstanz we call it „Fasnacht“. And in 2021? Nothing, absolutely nothing. The people are so sad and our goal was to say: Hey, folks, bloody times, but next year, we‘ll meet us …
In digital we‘ll produce a challenge: Do you know these masks? Picture 1 one mask, picture 2 solution and background from this mask and so on.
May next year bring those happy, colorful masks to everyone in Konstanz—and elsewhere!
Here this double page compares last year to this year:
Professors: get your review version of The Story on time for fall classes
As an academic, I know the importance of having the right tools to advance our students, especially on the important subject of mobile storytelling. Please drop me an email if you would like to sample The Story in its digital edition: mario@garciamedia.com
Start writing or type / to choose a block
The full trilogy of The Story now available–3 books to guide you through a mobile first strategy. Whether you’re a reporter, editor, designer, publisher, corporate communicator, The Story is for you! https://amazon
TheMarioBlog post # 3274