Does newspaper design match its market?
Posted by Diana Epstein on March 22, 2006 at 5:05 PM
Often taking risks in newspaper formatting leads to more sales but why are so many papers reluctant to adopt new formats? Most papers share the same format, with only their nameplates discernable: left-hand digest, above-the-fold promos, top story stripped, 4-column photo in the middle, etc but each paper serves a completely different market. How can one format fit every market?
The three papers that break away from the general mold are the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and USAToday, all papers with instantly recognizable designs and a design that reflect each of their approach
to news.
Newspapers generally co-opt each other’s formats rather than develop solutions for their unique market and even most redesigns follow the general trend of what is popular
Innovation does pay off when bold maneuvers and new designs boost readership and revenues. Recently The Bakersfield Californian launched a “visually dramatic” redesign of its paper. The paper claims that since the launch, subscription starts have exceeded stops by 15-1 and an 8-13% increase in single copy sales with an extra thousand inches of additional advertising. In addition, the paper has hired a citizen journalism editor to head the papers project to include the work of citizen journalists, who they call contributing writers, as part of the paper.
Source: BrassTracks Design
to news.
Newspapers generally co-opt each other’s formats rather than develop solutions for their unique market and even most redesigns follow the general trend of what is popular
Innovation does pay off when bold maneuvers and new designs boost readership and revenues. Recently The Bakersfield Californian launched a “visually dramatic” redesign of its paper. The paper claims that since the launch, subscription starts have exceeded stops by 15-1 and an 8-13% increase in single copy sales with an extra thousand inches of additional advertising. In addition, the paper has hired a citizen journalism editor to head the papers project to include the work of citizen journalists, who they call contributing writers, as part of the paper.
Source: BrassTracks Design
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But do "most papers share the same format"? De Telegraaf doesn't look anything like NRC Handelsblad, nor does it fit the above description, and I can't imagine mistaking Aftonbladet for Dagens Nyheter nor FAZ for Bild...
(Yes, this is obviously a US-only post. But it wasn't until I clicked through on my RSS feed.)