TAKEAWAY: If there is a part of the world where newspapers seem to be vibrantly alive, it is in Asia. Particularly in India and Thailand, new titles have emerged, and readers seem to cling to their printed newspapers with a zest that is rarely seen elsewhere. Pure Design’s download is all about the look of Asian newspapers. PLUS: Some front pages we like today.
Many are new, others are fully revamped
Mint, the two-year old financial daily in India; the popular Apple, Taiwan edition
Hindustantimes, India, recently redesigned by Garcia Media team
One of India’s newest dailies, Sakshi, published in the Telugu language in Hyderabad: daily readers over 8 million and growing. A Garcia Media project.
Thailand’s The Nation and its sister newspaper, Daily Xpress
We have been witness to the starting of new titles in Asia: Daily Xpress ( Bangkok, Thailand), Sakshi (Hyderabad, India), Mint (India), and we have seen these newspapers received warmly by readers, with circulations increasing almost from the set go. Asian newspapers tend to do well in street sales, where the culture still allows for newspaper vendors to walk up and down the streets, approaching commuters as they emerge from train or bus stations, or as they stop for a traffic light. Kiosks are colorful press shops, and one can find them almost at every other block in busy cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangkok or Singapore.
In terms of design, Asian newspapers offer quite a variety, with one common theme: color.
Next to the Brazilian newspapers, which tend to be the most color infused in the world, would have to be Asian newspapers. Boldness, a sense of everything large, are the design mantras of Asian newsapaper designers.
More about some of our Garcia Media Asian projects:
Hindustantimes, Delhi, India:
https://garciamedia.com/blog/articles/new_look_for_indias_hindustantimes/
Mint, India
https://www.garciamedia.com/blog/articles/have_a_live_mint
Sakshi, Hyderabad, India
https://www.garciamedia.com/blog/articles/new_daily_in_telugu_language_for_hyderabad_india
http://www.sakshi.com
Open publication – Free publishing – More visuals
Two front pages of today that we really liked
Surprise is always one of my favorite elements on a front page. Readers agree with me, too. As I viewed a variety of front pages today (a routine morning ritual for me), I found these interesting treatments of what otherwise could be very ordinary graphics for rather ordinary stories.
The page of the Sun Sentinel with the buttons for various issues such as jobs, immigration, etc. is designed by its art director Nuri Ducassi, a long time friend, and perhaps one of the most creatively talented design directors anywhere.
Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Florida): instant seduction into a story about the economy.
Chicago’s Red Eye uses front page to tell the story about Oprah Winfrey moving taping of her show to new location. Effectively done.
The following links, from the WAN/IFRA Executive News Service offer glimpses into how the industry moves today:
– Top 10 Lies Newspaper Execs are Telling Themselves
http://simsblog.typepad.com/simsblog/2009/09/top-10-lies-newspaper-execs-are-telling-themselves.html
My favorite of the “lies” is #10 (below). Boy, how true this is. I hear it daily. I see it weekly. I tire of telling publishers globally (mainly in the US, however) that their newspapers need to embrace
(with gusto, please, not carried kicking and screaming), the whole Daily Me culture. Journalists should write blogs. Make Twitter one of the tools of reporters’ daily operation. See what Facebook and you can network together, etc. etc. The deja vú factor here: Many years ago, I would hear editors who did not watch TV, considered that medium stupid, and, because they were intellectuals who preferred to sit at home and read Pride and Prejudice in the evening, had no clue as to what was “polularly relevant” at the time. Now, forget TV, you hear the same argument about the Internet.
Lie #10: I can compete with the best digital leaders/thinkers/creators in the world without becoming an active member of the online community.
No you can’t.
Until you have a blog, a Twitter feed and a Facebook account and until you are reading most of your news online and commenting on what you read, until you are all over Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, iGoogle, Netvibes and the like, until you can actually explain to me how online CPM-based advertising works, until you can explain how SEO and SEM work, until you know what “pwnd” means, until you know the significance of the 3 Wolf Moon or 3 Cat Keyboard t-shirt, you don’t know what you don’t know.
You are competing with the very people who created the Internet. Increasingly, you are competing with the generation who grew up online. How can you possibly be so arrogant that you think you can compete in that world without becoming a part of it?
Stop that navel gazing and look around. You are outmatched.
Also of interest
– USA: Community voices in Ann Arbor: a glimpse of local journalism’s future?
http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/09/community-voices-in-ann-arbor-a-glimpse-of-local-journalisms-future/
USA: This News Doesn’t Want to Be Free—When the Newport Daily News started charging for readers for online offerings, critics thought readers would be gone for good. Instead, they began returning to the newsstand.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/214607
– USA: Washington Post Develops Visual, Web-like Commenting System
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=169103
– USA: Post-Gazette President Expects Premium Site PG+ to Evolve
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=123&aid=169427
– FT is biggest winner in mixed bag UK daily readership poll
http://www.brandrepublic.com/Discipline/Media/News/931080/FT-biggest-winner-mixed-bag-UK-daily-readership-poll/
– Hey, James Murdoch: How about thanking the BBC for all your traffic?
http://www.malcolmcoles.co.uk/blog/murdoch-please-thank-bbc/
– Australian media giant Fairfax optimistic about future
http://research.scottrade.com/public/markets/news/news.asp?section=headlines&docKey=100-244u6500-1
– How to Develop the Facebook Strategy You Need
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=31&aid=169112
– Web Publishing Roll Up: Why Newspapers Fail?
http://www.cmswire.com/cms/web-publishing/web-publishing-roll-up-why-newspapers-fail-005413.php
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
Follow me at www.twitter.com/tweetsbydesign
Follow the Marios
Two Marios. Two Views.
Follow Mario Jr. and his blog about media analysis, web design and assorted topics related to the current state of our industry.
http://garciainteractive.com/
Visit Mario Sr. daily here, or through TweetsByDesign (www.twitter.com/tweetsbydesign)
In Spanish daily: The Rodrigo Fino blog
:
To read TheRodrigoFino blog, in Spanish, go:
https://garciamedia.com/latinamerica/blog/
TheMarioBlog posting #351