Are you crazy to launch print products now? Therapy from Dr Mario Garcia
In this interview I mention the one project I am presently in Amsterdam to complete, a new weekend supplement for De Telegraaf, to be called Vrij (Free). This new print and digital publication will replace the existing weekend supplement, incorporating subjects like Travel, Food, Lifestyle and introducing the new En Route, about boats and cars, for example.
Highlight:
De Telegraaf has a very active presence for digital news, but their weekend print product is one of the more popular. A lot of their readers like to sit down and read the newspaper without any interruptions. It’s what many people refer to as the luxury of paper – that you’re not connected. But you can’t romanticize print – if you do that, you will die with print. You have to put print in the context of the new. In that sense, the best printed newspapers will live forever. Having said that, I believe that many of them will not live Monday to Friday – print will be a weekend art.
That is why De Telegraaf and a lot of the clients that I work with are beefing up the weekend product. I think there is a great future for a printed weekend newspaper that is a combination of book, magazine, and documentary film… that takes you in depth into places that you don’t have the time to go to Monday through Friday. They will go online 24/7 with very robust weekend editions on paper, with even more sections than they have now.
Our new Garcia Media print project launches in the next few weeks
Vrij, for De Telegraaf in the Netherlands
La Voz del Interior, Cóirdoba, Argentina
The Philippines Daily Inquirer, Manila, Philippines
Mint, Delhi, India
In each case there will be innovations for the print edition, as well as total rethink of all digital platforms.
The Netherlands–May 21, Vrij, weekend supplement of De Telegraaf
Argentina–June 7, La Voz del Interior, daily newspaper of Cordoba (converting from broadsheet to tabloid).
Philippines–June 23, The Philippines Daily Inquirer.
India–August, Mint, the business daily published in Delhi (converting from Berliner to broadsheet)