The cost of design
They keep saying we need to design better. We need to figure our audience out better. Be more modern. Be bolder. Be more clear. More clever. Be different.
That’s what it’ll take for newspapers to survive.
Unfortunately, while they say that, the cost of newsprint is going up, newspaper execs are bringing in reapers to make unnecessary cuts and the remaining news space in papers is shrinking. Designers are expected to design more and faster with fewer resources, shrinking job security and tighter deadlines. It’s a game of chicken between what management wants and what today’s design desks can produce.
The most infuriating thing is that newspapers are still profitable. McClatchy and Gannett are still posting good operating profit margins, suggesting that the actual run of the newspaper is still making money. It’s the owners at the top who have buried themselves under debt that are pressing the panic button. If only they’d spend their money more intelligently, this newspaper crisis wouldn’t be so pronounced.
And until the execs learn to control their own spending and cease cauterizing whole desks of journalists, you’ll continue to get ugly newspapers and once-beautiful publications (Hartford Courant) wither to a template-style design that is weak.
I wish I could speak Spanish.
Posted by Kevin Alexander
