Opinion: Why redesign doesn't work
Posted by Rosemary D'Amour on November 6, 2008 at 11:14 AM
Columnist Steve Outing reports that in order to save print newspapers, "publishers must improve them with the older print loyalists in mind."
With publications shutting down print services from a seven day-a-week schedule to weekly, cutting staff, or slimming their number of pages, the crisis for print news could be solved not by redesign but by quality improvement, Outing says, and leveraging digital offerings in print editions.
With publications shutting down print services from a seven day-a-week schedule to weekly, cutting staff, or slimming their number of pages, the crisis for print news could be solved not by redesign but by quality improvement, Outing says, and leveraging digital offerings in print editions.
The Boston Globe's "revamp" has been without the "bold changes" of products like The Chicago Tribune, creating a "virtue out of necessity" in an attempt to improve the newspaper itself rather than adopt flashy redesigns.
The new Chicago Tribune print redesign is a "reinvention of the old newspaper model." As a result, the paper seems to cater to audiences with "shorter attention spans" with shorter stories and more graphics. The paper is slimmer, with fewer stories and a higher ad-to-editorial ratio of 50/50.
Critics cite the loss of depth of content, the less "serious and substantial" feeling of the paper, and as a result, the paper is losing its "loyalist" older readership to try to draw in a younger, digitized audience.
The decline in the print product is a result of "significant staff reductions" happening at newspapers all over the country. It is impossible, Outing says, to maintain a high quality print product with fewer resources.
Newspapers must deal with the changing times. Younger readers probably won't be attracted to reading print, and newspapers are losing older readers in their flashy attempt to grab them.
The solution, says Outing, is for publishers to "leverage their digital offerings within the print edition," by making it obvious how much more content is available online. Readers should be "hit over the head" with what else the paper has to offer on a website, aiding older readers to "adopt to digital media" and acting as a launch-off point for the younger audience.
Source: Editor and Publisher
The new Chicago Tribune print redesign is a "reinvention of the old newspaper model." As a result, the paper seems to cater to audiences with "shorter attention spans" with shorter stories and more graphics. The paper is slimmer, with fewer stories and a higher ad-to-editorial ratio of 50/50.
Critics cite the loss of depth of content, the less "serious and substantial" feeling of the paper, and as a result, the paper is losing its "loyalist" older readership to try to draw in a younger, digitized audience.
The decline in the print product is a result of "significant staff reductions" happening at newspapers all over the country. It is impossible, Outing says, to maintain a high quality print product with fewer resources.
Newspapers must deal with the changing times. Younger readers probably won't be attracted to reading print, and newspapers are losing older readers in their flashy attempt to grab them.
The solution, says Outing, is for publishers to "leverage their digital offerings within the print edition," by making it obvious how much more content is available online. Readers should be "hit over the head" with what else the paper has to offer on a website, aiding older readers to "adopt to digital media" and acting as a launch-off point for the younger audience.
Source: Editor and Publisher
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![Digg](http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.editorsweblog.org%2Fmultimedia%2F2008%2F11%2Fopinion_why_redesign_doesnt_work.php&bodytext=Columnist <b>Steve Outing</b> reports that in order to save print newspapers, "publishers must improve them with the older print loyalists in mind." <br /><br /><form contenteditable="false" mt:asset-id="1386" class="mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image" style="display: inline;"><a href="http://www.editorsweblog.org/imageschicago.jpg"><img alt="imageschicago.jpg" src="http://www.editorsweblog.org/imageschicago-thumb-124x114.jpg" class="mt-image-left" style="margin: 0pt 20px 20px 0pt; float: left;" height="114" width="124" /></a></form>With publications shutting down print services from a seven day-a-week schedule to weekly, cutting staff, or slimming their number of pages, the crisis for print news could be solved not by redesign but by quality improvement, Outing says, and leveraging digital offerings in print editions. <br /><br /> <div><br /></div>&title=Opinion: Why redesign doesn't work){kind=link}