Time to downsize the Grey Old Lady
Advertising Age e-mailed me and wanted to know what to do with the design of New York Times. Then I remembered Arthur Sulzberger’s proud declaration in Seoul in June: "New York Times will never become a tabloid".
I think the future will make a liar out of him. The New York Times will certainly be transformed into a compact format. Le Monde was always a compact, and so is now virtually every big quality newspaper in Europe. Later this month even The Wall Street Journal will start printing its international edition in tabloid size. The time will come for the grey old lady to slim down as well.
The newspapers of the world, and that includes the New York Times, will have to realize that they compete not in a newspapers-market, nor in a media-market, but in a time-market. The core business idea of any newspaper (although the publishers and editors tend to avoid admitting to this) is to deliver a number of readers to the advertisers, or, more precisely, a certain exposure of the ads to a specific audience.
The time the readers spend with the papers is the currency the newspapers sell to advertisers, and that time has been steadily diminishing since the 60's. What to do? To just go on producing what to a large extent is an increasingly irrelevant newspaper, like NYT does, is not a good idea. The species that do not adapt will eventually perish.
The future is coming, and it's coming fast. Some of the changes for newspapers I foresee:
• The size will shrink from broadsheet to tabloid, then on to half-Berliner or A4.
• The number of pages will be very limited, and the pages packed. White space will become scarce.
• No stock market listings in print, these will be displayed on the phone, in real-time.
• The integration newspaper/phone/PDA/wireless laptop will be 100 percent.
• E-mail and SMS tailored to the individual reader/subscriber will be very important.
• Bloggers will team up with newspapers - and vice versa. Borders between "professional" writers and "amateurs" will (thankfully) become increasingly blurred, and newspaper brands will become less important.
• Short info will beat long, personal views will beat objectivity, tailored news will beat general.
The legendary newspaperman and designer Louis Silverstein was the Hercules that cleaned out the stables of NYT 30 years ago. While waving his big, stinking cigar, he transformed what basically was a non-designed newspaper into something you could read without hurting your eyes. But what was a design revolution at the time has today degenerated into a boring excercise in bad type, pages filled with either nice ads or dull grey editorial space, lousy news photos... or brightly illustrated stories catering to the vested interests of Manhattan's real estate companies.
10 Things The New York Times of today needs to do:
(1) Ask the readers what kind of paper they want, and give them that paper.
(2) Change format into tabloid or smaller.
(3) Learn how to use electronic media as a complement to the paper.
(4) Change typefaces all around... looking old is no advantage these days, unless you're the new kid on the block.
(5) Give their photo-editors a kick in the butt, and hire some new photographers.
(6) Decide how many pages the paper should be. Then throw out what doesn't fit into those pages. Forget "All the news fit to print" and start printing only what fits into your readers time-slot!
(7) Change the rhythm of the paper in order to get more news space in the beginning of each section, not just the front pages.
(8) Devote designer energy to the news sections as well, not just the feature sections.
(9) Get a printing stock (paper) that works better with the printing equipment.
(10) Alternatively, get a printing plant that knows how to do the job.
European newspaper publishers tend to look westward for new ideas, especially to The New York Times. Over the years it has served the industry well, and there are still some great newspapers in America. These days, I’m not convinced that New York Times can serve as a source of inspiration any more. It needs to shape up.
I think the future will make a liar out of him. The New York Times will certainly be transformed into a compact format. Le Monde was always a compact, and so is now virtually every big quality newspaper in Europe. Later this month even The Wall Street Journal will start printing its international edition in tabloid size. The time will come for the grey old lady to slim down as well.
The newspapers of the world, and that includes the New York Times, will have to realize that they compete not in a newspapers-market, nor in a media-market, but in a time-market. The core business idea of any newspaper (although the publishers and editors tend to avoid admitting to this) is to deliver a number of readers to the advertisers, or, more precisely, a certain exposure of the ads to a specific audience.
The time the readers spend with the papers is the currency the newspapers sell to advertisers, and that time has been steadily diminishing since the 60's. What to do? To just go on producing what to a large extent is an increasingly irrelevant newspaper, like NYT does, is not a good idea. The species that do not adapt will eventually perish.
The future is coming, and it's coming fast. Some of the changes for newspapers I foresee:
• The size will shrink from broadsheet to tabloid, then on to half-Berliner or A4.
• The number of pages will be very limited, and the pages packed. White space will become scarce.
• No stock market listings in print, these will be displayed on the phone, in real-time.
• The integration newspaper/phone/PDA/wireless laptop will be 100 percent.
• E-mail and SMS tailored to the individual reader/subscriber will be very important.
• Bloggers will team up with newspapers - and vice versa. Borders between "professional" writers and "amateurs" will (thankfully) become increasingly blurred, and newspaper brands will become less important.
• Short info will beat long, personal views will beat objectivity, tailored news will beat general.
The legendary newspaperman and designer Louis Silverstein was the Hercules that cleaned out the stables of NYT 30 years ago. While waving his big, stinking cigar, he transformed what basically was a non-designed newspaper into something you could read without hurting your eyes. But what was a design revolution at the time has today degenerated into a boring excercise in bad type, pages filled with either nice ads or dull grey editorial space, lousy news photos... or brightly illustrated stories catering to the vested interests of Manhattan's real estate companies.
10 Things The New York Times of today needs to do:
(1) Ask the readers what kind of paper they want, and give them that paper.
(2) Change format into tabloid or smaller.
(3) Learn how to use electronic media as a complement to the paper.
(4) Change typefaces all around... looking old is no advantage these days, unless you're the new kid on the block.
(5) Give their photo-editors a kick in the butt, and hire some new photographers.
(6) Decide how many pages the paper should be. Then throw out what doesn't fit into those pages. Forget "All the news fit to print" and start printing only what fits into your readers time-slot!
(7) Change the rhythm of the paper in order to get more news space in the beginning of each section, not just the front pages.
(8) Devote designer energy to the news sections as well, not just the feature sections.
(9) Get a printing stock (paper) that works better with the printing equipment.
(10) Alternatively, get a printing plant that knows how to do the job.
European newspaper publishers tend to look westward for new ideas, especially to The New York Times. Over the years it has served the industry well, and there are still some great newspapers in America. These days, I’m not convinced that New York Times can serve as a source of inspiration any more. It needs to shape up.
posted by Pelle at Sunday, August 28, 2005
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