I am honored to be the consultant helping not only with this print design rethinking–in collaboration with my team at Garcia Media, senior art directors Paula Ripoll and Rodrigo Fino along with Khaleej Times’ talented design director, Raja Choudhury, but also with a year-long project led by editor-in-chief Vinay Kamat that aims at a total transformation for how the Khaleej Times (KT) approaches content flow in a multiplatform environment.
For those who think that print editions don’t matter anymore, just take a look at what is happening in Dubai, starting today and here is the front page for the Khaleej Times, Thursday, December 2, 2021:
1. The Khaleej Times sets out with this new look on a day when it also publishes a 40-page celebratory section for the 50th anniversary of the nation.
2. Advertisers have clamored for space in the pages of the KT, but also all other print editions of UAE newspaper. Love seeing all those glossy ads for supermarkets, hospitals, tech companies, etc.
3. Extra copies will be delivered all around Dubai at cafes, supermarket, clinics and public transportation areas.
Extra, extra, keep this souvenir edition!
What will be new? Here are 10 highlights!
- There is a new digital branding, with a bright color palette, that should serve to identify Khaleej Times content, especially for when readers share it via social media:
2. New presentation for promotional units on Page One, offering flexibility to grand stories their own hierarchy:
3. Use of larger photographs across the entire edition, exploring what printed newspaper pages can do best—-the mega large photo that amazes in ways one can’t match via the small screen of a phone, as seen in today’s sports section opener. Further down see the prototype models to guide the team:
4. Special topics treated via “destination” pages that will offer an in-depth look at a personality, trend, place or event.
5. The migration of visual concepts from digital/mobile to print. Look at this page from today’s newspaper which translates panels that resemble Instagram posts to the printed page:
6. A design that accommodates those long reads that readers crave and expect in the print edition of a modern newspaper crafted for the mobile era:
7. More photo stories that tell the story visually, following a structure that reminds us of how Instagram entries appear:
8. Short items that summarize stories readers may already know, but wish to reaffirm. These are the so called briefs, which can appear through any section of the new KT. The briefs can appear as “balconies” at the top, or as horizontal units bottom of the page:
9. Use of “accessory” story structures that enhance the content of stories: bio sketches, the story in numbers, highlight quotes, the story at a glance, all which become more important for scanners in the mobile era:
10. A newly designed City Times, now known as “ct”:
Today’s CT and the prototype model below:
The type palette
- Lyon text (Family)
- Lyon Display (family)
- Stag (family)
- Bureaugrotcomp (family)
Marketing for a new product
What next for the KT?
Be on the lookout for more of the transformational elements of this project as the Khaleej Times continues to introduce them in the weeks and months ahead.
Of related interest:
Read my op ed piece announcing the launch of the new KT:
https://www.khaleejtimes.com/opinion/khaleej-times-reinvents-itself-for-a-brave-new-mobile-world
Read the editor’s introduction to the new concept:
https://www.khaleejtimes.com/uae/a-new-design-for-our-readers
Previously in TheMarioBlog about the KT’s transformation:
Our mobile storytelling workshops now available remotely
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 # 3334