TAKEAWAY: The financial dailies in Norway put their money on a front page that delivers big headlines, visual images and a look and feel that most newspaper editors associate with the “down market” or tabloid press. But, alas, it works! Looking at Norway’s Dagens Naeringsliv
Report from Oslo
Front pages of the Dagens Naeringsliv pack a punch with the big headline of the day
An inside page spread of the DN: Big, bold headlines prevail through the inside of the newspaper as well
Front page of Finansavisen, also a business daily published in Norway, and even more “tabloid” look and feel than the DN
I am visiting with the team of Norway’s Dagens Naeringsliv for a couple of days and totally fascinated with how this financial daily uses its front page as a huge poster, complete with those 300-point headlines and teasers with visual images not usually associated with business newspapers.
That it works there is no question about.
Group CEO for NHSTGunnar Bjorkavag explains it best:
“Unlike the rest of the world, where financial newspapers adhere to a look that is quite quiet and reserved, we in Norway are used to financial dailies that have impact, not unlike that which others may consider tabloid look, or downmarket. There is no such perception in Norway at all. We go for the big headline of the day and play it big, and we don’t do it for the sake of street sales, since the majority of our circulation is via subscriptions, but it helps to have impact, even for papers that are received at home or in the office.”
Bjorkavag referred to the fact that many readers of the DN are not the typical business newspaper only reader. “They are the common reader, too,” he says. They come to the DN because there is something there for them, too.
The design of the DN follows a pattern of what I describe as trombones and violines, with the strong sounds of the trombones——-translate that as big, bold sans serif headlines——heard more often than the more muted violins (elegant serif fonts) that are used primarily for opinion and some feature pages.
Desk Editor Bjarne Dramdahl Eriksen tells me that the last time the DN was redesigned, by the Palmer Watson team, the discussion of why the big, bold sans serif headlines on the front page resurfaced one more time.
It never fails to happen: when outside designers or editors come here, they always ask why we go for such big headlines on Page One. But this is the way it is, and if you look at the other financial daily in Norway, Finansavisen, you will see that they, too, are quite strong with the size of headlines and images on their front page.
In fact, the Finansavisen takes all of this to the next level. If one would not see the word “finans” as part of the logo, this could never pass for a financial newspaper anywhere, but in Norway, perhaps.
I prefer the style of the Dagens Naeringsliv, however: the perfect combination of the visual impact of bold, with the elegant design architecture that reminds you that you are reading a serious newspaper, with excellent journalistic content, but that wants to seduce just the same.
A good formula, and one that other financial dailies should study perhaps.
Google Inc makes donation to Knight Foundation
It is a good day for those who believe in an informed citizenry in the digital age.
Good friend Alberto Ibarguen, with whom we worked together when he was publisher of The Miami Herald, and who is now president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, send us an email to let us know that Google, Inc has just announced a $2 million grant to support Knight Foundation’s journalism and digital media programs.
Indeed, great news that we share with you. Here is what Alberto writes me about the grant:
Google’s grant is a significant endorsement of Knight’s work in support of ideas and initiatives that lead to informed and engaged communities. Our core belief is that informed people can best determine their own, true interests, so it is essential to democracy that we be well informed. It also represents Knight Foundation’s openness to collaboration and partnership with others as we seek new ways to effectively meet the news and information needs of communities in the digital age.
Here is how Google announced the grant through Nikesh Arora, President, Global Sales Operations and Business Development:
Journalism is fundamental to a functioning democracy, and we want to do our part to help fulfill the promise of journalism in the digital age. There is no better partner to support innovation and experimentation in digital journalism than Knight Foundation.”
Ibarguen added, “The free flow of information is essential to a well-functioning democracy. Already, more Americans get their information from the Internet than from newspapers. That trend will only intensify, making it imperative for our democracy that we find ways to effectively deliver the news and information people require on the new, digital platforms. It is essential in this transformative time that we join with others to find ways in which information can be generally shared so that, in Jack Knight’s words, the people ‘may pursue their true interests.’ Google is the right partner. We hope for many others.”
We know that the money donated by Google will be put to good use at the Knight Foundation which has already invested more than $100 million in a multi-faceted media innovation initiative. Its projects address media innovation on various levels, including national media policy, technology innovation, public media transformation and the evolution of the World Wide Web. Programs such as the Knight News Challenge, a media innovation contest, have to date spawned hundreds of community media experiments and other projects.
We look forward to watching the progress for digital news program development at the Knight Foundation.
For more about the Knight Foundation:
www.knightfoundation.org
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation advances journalism in the digital age and invests in the vitality of communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation focuses on projects that promote informed and engaged communities and lead to transformational change.
Of special interest
Switching from e-ink to Android—a tailor-made platform for reading newspapers and magazines!
http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/26/barnes-and-noble-nook-color-revealed/
Could this be the marriage of the decade? Apple and SONY?
http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/story/10900162/1/apple-and-sony-to-join-forces.html?cm_ven=YAHOO&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA
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