Welt am Sonntag (the Sunday edition of Die Welt) won the Society of News Design's World's Best-Designed Newspaper award earlier this year. Art director Jördis Guzmán Bulla told the Editors Weblog a bit about the visual contributions that she and her team make to the paper.

Guzman Bulla explained the focus that Welt am Sonntag puts on the visual aspect of the newspaper. "Every week it is a new challenge to attract and surprise the reader. Just like a narrative story, the visual language has to be a dramatic composition and have a rhythm. It has to be varied: sometimes a strong picture, sometimes a funny illustration, sometimes a cool infographic - but always matched with the story."

"The page must be a synthesis of content and look," Guzman Bulla explained: clearly the visual appearance should not be prioritised over the content itself.

Different challenges exist in print and online due to different reading habits. "In print the reader reads news in a linear fashion, in online, non-linear," Guzman Bulla specified. "In print the reader is eager and confident. In online the reader is more investigative and effective but can be attracted by multimedia."

Guzman Bulla works with a team of lay-out editors: a team which is significantly smaller than when she began work with Welt am Sonntag, but still extremely effective. There is a separate infographic team which also works for other publications. To produce, for example, an "opulent" visual ad-free double page spread "it takes time and dedication," and cooperation between her and "the editor, the lay-out editor and/or the photo editor, the infographic artist, the illustrator." Journalists and artists work closely together.

As newspapers continue to seek cost-effective solutions, this situation may change, she added. "I admire and value the work of professional specialists like photographers and illustrators - they are artists. However, as we are obliged to strive to be cost-effective, I believe there will be a trend towards multitalented journalists who write, take pictures and bring visual ideas. And that's only for print! For online, the author has to think about video, audio and interaction as well as photo," she said. "I imagine the job of the journalist will change a lot more."

Jördis Guzmán Bulla will be speaking next week at "The 2015 newsroom: high quality standards and low-cost solutions" in Prague. To find out more about the conference see here.