TAKEAWAY: We take a look at what happens when a major sports story breaks in midmorning in Montreal and how two different tablet editions for The Montreal Gazette and La Presse covered it.
Last week we devoted four blog posts to What’s Trending with Tablets (see links below) . It has become obvious that newspaper tablet editions need to incorporate news, especially breaking news, as part of their offering. However, it is also important that these tablet editions include “extras”, as in curated material, features, and a full repertoire of the lean back material.
So, it is a good coincidence to see how breaking news plays in two different Canadian newspaper tablet editions, published in Montreal, The Montreal Gazette and La Presse.
The story: The coach of Montreal’s professional football team was suddenly fired, mid-morning.
How the tablets editions covered it: La Presse did not put it on its cover, because it had already published its curated edition for the day. Instead, iPad users would have to know to tap on the hard-to-spot breaking news button at the top right of the screen to be directed to La Presse’s website
Worse, the La Presse iPad edition featured a cover story about Montreal’s soccer team that morning – hardly the big sports story of the day.
In contrast, within minutes, The Gazette had overhauled the cover of its iPad edition, devoting the entire space to the football news and adding a “special edition” strap.
Our take:
While we admire the look and feel of La Presse, we felt, from the start that perhaps it is too lean back in its approach to news.
Here’s what Walter Buchignani, The Gazette’s iPad editor, has to say about that view:
Regarding La Presse and others that you might say are too lean-back: The problem is not the lack of breaking news. Even La Presse has a breaking news button, at the top right, that takes users to its website for the latest updates. The problem, in my view, occurs when breaking news overtakes what’s on the front page – and the front page isn’t changed to reflect the update. It’s not enough to say – “oh, we have that story; just tap that little button over there and go find it.” That’s lazy and unacceptable in the digital age. You gotta rip up the front page and start again, like in the old days with print, only you must be prepared – and your app must allow you – to do it any time of day. If a big story breaks at 11 a.m., users should expect it to slap them in the face when they launch the app. I like that The New York Times front page on iPad evolves throughout the day, despite its conservative design. We’re trying to do the same here at The Gazette, with an app that has its own set of limitations.
This particular incident and story of the firing of a football coach during the morning hours illustrates the point. We are seeing more lean forward moments during the day among tablet users, so a good tablet edition is going to be able to accommodate breaking news at a moment’s notice.
This calls for a design that adapts to the reality of a breaking news item with no available visuals, as in “type attacks” (using the impact of just typography) that can be called upon to fit into spaces for which templates may require photos.
This changes the dynamic of how newspaper tablet editions are created, and how the people who produce them need to define their jobs.
Of related interest:
https://garciamedia.com/blog/articles/pla_presses_new_tablet_app_too_lean_back_p/
The What’s Trending in the Tablets series:**
Part 1: What’s Trending with Those Tablet Newspaper Editions?
https://www.garciamedia.com/blog/articles/pwhats_trending_with_those_tablet_newspaper_editions_p
Part 2: A brief but eventful history for newspaper tablet editions
https://www.garciamedia.com/blog/articles/pa_brief_but_eventful_history_for_newspaper_tablet_editions_p
Part 3: Evening Pilot: new tablet edition leans forward, leans back, crosses “the bridge”
https://www.garciamedia.com/blog/articles/pevening_pilot_new_tablet_edition_leans_forward_leans_back_crosses_the_brid
Part 4: What’s Trending with Tablets: A conversation with Joe Zeff and Michael Eder
https://www.garciamedia.com/blog/articles/pwhats_trending_with_tablets_a_conversation_with_joe_zeff_and_michael_eder_