About five months ago, during a conversation with Robert Bound, an editor for Tyler Brule’s Monocle magazine, he hinted that perhaps newspapers in the future will have to concentrate on specialized content, aim at higher segments of the reading public, and perhaps be perceived as sort of luxury items, the way we relate to brands in the league of Cartier, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, etc.
The thought of that conversation has stayed with me, and I envision many newspapers in the future aimed at elite readership. Some exist already, as in Germany’s Die Zeit. In the United States, the now defunct The National Observer, intelligently designed by the late Peter Palazzo, aimed at a high level readership. In a sense, these are examples of newspapers that one could be define as luxurious in content and style.
Today, Miguel Torres, a columnist in Spain’s daily ABC, in his article headlined “The Future of Newspapers” again links the word luxury to newspaper content. Torres writes that the newspapers that will survive the aggressive competition of this multimedia world will be those produced by “media houses that know how to elaborate a product with the intellectual luxury capable of surviving the ever so menacing and dark future ahead.”
Those who adhere to the thought of the printed newspaper as elitist and luxurious believe that the online editions of such newspapers will become the station where the masses gather to collect news and information, while printed newspapers will be the quiet corner where a few with higher expectations, education and greater intellectual curiosity will find their refuge. How will this play in terms of an economic model? Perhaps if the online editions become profitable, then this could be possible.
For editors, the period of transition that I think we are already in the middle of, and which may last another ten years, will be a difficult one: how to make the printed newspaper more visually and intellectually appealing to the masses, while beginning to plant the seeds of this new luxury newspaper. I would start with the Sunday newspaper, which may be the profitable one for the future. I can envision a newspaper that has mass appeal during the week, but raises the bar for Sunday. Everyone will appreciate it.
Get the “intellectual luxury” that Torres writes about, wrap it in a nice blue Tiffany box, complete with the ribbon, and, who knows? Your newspaper might become a luxury that few could resist.
WE SEND YOU:
www.monocle.com
www.abc.es
www.diezeit.de
WHERE IS MARIO? In Maspalomas, Canary Islands, running thru the especially designed tracks that make this city by the sea a runner’s paradise. Along the run, an added fitness benefit: jumping to avoid the “lagartos de Gran Canarias” (huge salamanders) that cross the roads from time to time.