TAKEAWAY: When I wrote this chapter of Pure Design in 2002, I mentioned that North American newspapers were the ones that many editors from around the world turn to for models of what to be, how to look. How true is that statement in 2009?
Looking for the good model newspapers
These are among several US newspapers that do it right, even if their economic fortunes may not show it at the moment
Indeed, a lot has happened to newspapers everywhere since 2002 when this original “fable” of Pure Design was written. Among the most notable happenings of the past seven years:
1. Many US and Canadian newspapers have converted to narrower width formats, including USA Today and The Wall Street Journal.
2. A majority of the newspapers have restructured their newsrooms, streamlined their payrolls, and now produce the daily newspaper with fewer people—-and on fewer pages.
3. Redesign activity has been reduced drastically from the levels of the booming 1980s and 1990s, where so many newspapers went for more color, greater display of informational graphics and an almost obsessive attitude about design and the way they looked.
Are US newspapers still the models in 2009?
Some continue to be, especially because they do so much in times of great economic distress. Think The New York Times, The St. Petersburg Times (Florida), The Baltimore Sun, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Virginian Pilot, and, among the small and very regional, The Journal-World (Lawrence, Kansas), among others.
What are they doing right? They have redefined the concept of news, without abandoning those traits that made them great newspapers: outstanding local coverage (which includes investigative journalism), a sense of community (service orientation), online editions that are chockfull of multi media, blogs and more service for users and using extension of their valuable brands into cross media projects.
We still have great models, but now those models must conform to different rules: the role of digital media, convergence of newsrooms to integrate multi platform environments, and, most importantly, how the editor at the top leads his/her team in redefining what is news, what is popularly relevant news, and how to select the right medium for the right presentation.
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.
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.
WAN’s World Trends 2009 Report
The 2009 edition of World Press Trends from WAN/IFRA is now available. I always like to review this report for its complete information on global circulation, advertising and online trends in our industry. All countries in the world where daily newspapers are published are covered in the publication.
This year the WAN/IFRA folks have decided to publish a print version but only make the book available on pdf.
Those interested go:
http://www.wan-press.org/forms/wpt2009.html
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Follow Mario Jr. and his blog about media analysis, web design and assorted topics related to the current state of our industry.
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TheMarioBlog posting #348