Newspaper Redesign UPDATE!
Continuing my (unintentional) series on newspaper redesigns I felt the journalistic pull to update you, Dear Reader, on recent dramatic developments in the world of print newspapers.
Print is not dead… yet.
Fig.1 No Money
My revisitation to the world of Print Newspapers was sparked by and article Jason Santa Maria recently posted entitled “The Death Throws of Print“, which starts by pointing out that Tribune Co. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Tribune Co. owns such properties The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune -who started this whole redesign conversation- and they even own the Cubbies.
The $10 billion dollars in debt is unrecoverable due to the current economic crisis and the resulting drying up of advertising revenue. The bankruptcy of a large dependable news source seems that it could be heralding the end of the era of print.
Newspapers are unprepared
Mr. Santa Maria’s primary grievance is that newspapers were ill prepared for the resulting drought of advertising. He cites a recent retrospective BoingBoing article about Tribune Co’s filing. The big zing at the end of the article is that the death of print and the rise of the digital era is not a sudden upheaval, “this change has been more like seeing oncoming glaciers ten miles off, and then deciding not to move”.
As I pointed out in my Omaha World Herald Redesign review, the biggest failure of that newspaper’s image was the web aspect of it. Jason Santa Maria says it beautifully in his post:
Few have invested any real time or talent to make their websites even half as remarkable as their print editions. Most publishers seem content to blindly dump their prized content into a lifeless shell of a site. Why should we give a damn about your site when you clearly don’t?
And that’s just aesthetics. Pointed out in the BoingBoing article, the advertising revenue model of newspapers is outdated and defunct.
“Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?”
All newspaper advertising revenues have been wiped out.
Classifieds were wiped out by Craigslist. Free was the perfect price for someone trying to make a buck off their old sofa.
Subscriptions are being wiped out by larger news sources and their websites. An applicable take on the timeless chauvinistic adage might be “Why buy the whole print edition when you can get the RSS feed for free?”
Full page ad spreads are being wiped out by 300 pixel ads on mass appeal online portal sites like Yahoo.com or CNN.com. Or simple news aggregators like Drudge Report, Digg.com, or even Perez Hilton *shudders*.
Tears for Fears
I do feel remorse for the end of print. I love books more than oxygen, but I’ve also had my eye on a Kindle. And I have ACTUAL dreams of a full color Apple iTablet (c’mon Apple!) that is like a glorified iPod Touch with wi-fi, email, and an internet browser [/drool].
But there is hope! Designers and Web Developers are MORE THAN ready with ideas to make the web a better place and could give your business a better foothold in your local market in exchange for a fair wage. I had like 10 ideas writing this article. Email us if you are reading this [/shamless pitch].
