Updated Tuesday, Nov. 3, 09:33 German time
TAKEAWAY: Readers reacted positively to the Handelsblatt relaunch in its new business format. Mostly online commentaries arrived during the day, although some readers used the old fashioned telephone, and a few wrote letters. ALSO: Orestes Larios Zaak to exhibit his Cuban ecological paintings in Madison, Wisconsin, starting Nov. 6
Mario Garcia Jr. relates the online relaunch for Handelsblatt
Mario Garcia Jr worked with the Handelsblatt online team in creating the new look and information architecture of the site.
Those interested in his views, go here:
http://garciainteractive.com/blog/view/47/
It’s a different way for readers to exchange comments now
Front page of today, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2009
See Mondrian presenting story thru a series of visual images that combine in a rectangle as lead piece on the page
Marketing of the new business format Handelsblatt (along with its online and phone apps) is going effectively well; here is huge billboard as seen at the Frankfurt International Airport. Images of Jurgen Grossmann, RWE-Chief, and Bernd Ziesemer, Handelsblatt editor in chief. Headline reads: Expertise needs Knowledge.
Many of you have sent congratulatory notes about the relaunch of Handelsblatt Monday, making it the first quality German daily to abandon the broadsheet format and switch to compact—-or business format.
In the good old days of redesign launches, we would get 200 calls—-mostly negative——by 9 am the morning after the first redesigned edition appeared. Not so anymore.
There have been many good testimonials (some will be published in the Tuesday edition), and many are available for all to read (in German), if you go http://www.handelsblatt.com (Relaunch segment). But we have not seen the avalanche that normally follows a redesign (at least the more than 500 I have been involved with).
I was telling chief editor Bernd Ziesemer that perhaps the reason we get fewer comments in the traditional way (phone calls, letters) is because those with opinions on the redesign now can air them through Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites. We have evidence that the Twitter traffic with Handelsblatt relaunch-related posts was quite heavy.
Overall, great comments from readers who find the new,smaller format easier to carry. One comment that is persistent here:
“The newspaper got smaller, and easier to carry, but it has the same journalistic substance as before.”
We like to hear that.
The “biggest reaction”?
Advertising appearing in Monday editions of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Perhaps the most gigantic reaction came in the way of a double page advertising in that most sophisticated of German dailies—-Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ)—one of the most respected newspapers in the world.
In today’s edition—-and it may be a coincidence—-the FAZ carried a huge ad with the image of a hippopotamus accompanied by a headline that basically read: Advertisers have a fascination with our FAZ big format.
No comment. Cute ad. Cute hippo. If the ad was intentional to coincide with Handelsblatt’s launch as a compact, it makes perfect marketing sense. Both dailies go after the high end of the readership. Advertisers know it.
Baby hippos can be very cuddly, I’d say.
All previous posts about Handelsblatt relaunch
https://www.garciamedia.com/blog/articles/germanys_handelsblatt—business_format_is_here_today
https://www.garciamedia.com/blog/articles/presenting_readers_users_with_preview_of_new_handelsblatt
https://www.garciamedia.com/blog/articles/handelsblatt_relaunch_to_be_on_monocle_radio
https://www.garciamedia.com/blog/articles/and_in_the_battle_of_the_h_versus_the_h_the_winner_is
https://www.garciamedia.com/blog/articles/do_we_associate_the_internet_with_everything_lower_case
https://www.garciamedia.com/blog/articles/getting_ready_for_relaunch_of_handelsblatt_coming_nov._2
Larios, Escobar bring exhibit to Madison
One of the images prepared by Larios for his lecture about Cuban art and the celebration of his 35 years as artist in Madison, Wisconsin
This is one of Orestes Larios Zaak’s latest works, which will be part of the exhibit
Cuban artist Orestes Larios Zaak will bring his ecologically-inspired paintings to Madison, Wisconsin, at the Edgewood’s DiRicci Gallery Nov. 4-24.
The exhibit opens Friday, Nov. 6, at 5 p.m. Larios will share the show with Cuban sculptor Gregorio Pérez Escobar and they both will also give a public lecture on contemporary Cuban art at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 11, in Edgewood’s Predolin Humanities Center.
This artistic exchange is part of the Madison-Camaguey sister city agreement. From time to time, Madison artists visit Camaguey, in the eastern section of Cuba, and now it is time for the Cuban artists to visit Madison.
Larios’ wife, Mary O. Granela, is curator of the exhibit. As those who read this blog know, Mary is my first cousin. She and her husband, Larios, are long time residents of Camaguey.
Larios is celebrating his 35 years in the fine arts, most of it devoted to painting Cuban ecological landscapes.
“Nature inspires me, and it will continue to do so,” Larios said as he arrived in the United States Sunday. “I am very happy that we will join our friends and colleagues in Madison for this exhibit, and to offer lectures that will bring a little information about our work, inspiration and workshops in Cuba.”
For more information about the exhibit:
http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27292TheMarioBlog post #412