Having just returned from the UK and from what is probably the country with one of the biggest newspaper reading cultures, it’s quite a shock to return home and discover that The New York Times has shrunk again, this time with the Sunday Magazine getting slimmer and more square.
I was really hoping that this realization was just a nightmare or that my mind was being time warped by the travel. Unfortunately this doesn’t seem to be the case.
While in the UK, I read quite a few newspapers, not just the regular morning editions, but also the late editions as well as the free give away (more gossip and entertaining news) papers that are handed out in the London Underground. Everywhere one looks, people are reading a paper. It’s really quite incredible. Returning to the states, or at least to New York City, I didn’t see anyone reading the Sunday paper on the train yesterday.
I have no clue as to why the newspaper business (or even magazines for that matter) are doing so poorly. Years ago I used to be a seven day a week subscriber to The New York Times but now I just get the Saturday and Sunday papers delivered. Even when they call (which is pretty often) to offer me the rest of the week for free I still say no.
I guess I just prefer to read the news online as it’s more current and up to date. Lately I have even considered canceling my weekend subscription but the thing I would probably miss most is the magazine itself as I don’t like reading that online. I enjoy flipping through the actual pages and looking at the photographs or illustrations and I also enjoy being able to take the magazine with me where ever I go that weekend. Now that the magazine itself has been given the incredible shrinking treatment, I’m not sure what I’ll do.
Flipping through The Guardian one day I took notice that the front page was quite different from what we see here in New York in that it seemed to focus more on one big story and maybe one other smaller story. In general I found that photographs seem to be printed in larger sizes and then I also ran across some incredibly large double page spreads of single photographs. They were huge and impressive and I don’t recall seeing anything like that here in America.
A double page spread from The Guardian
Obviously we all know that photography plays a crucial part in any news story but it struck me then more forcefully than ever before that photography might be more essential than we realize. As our visual education and proficiency continues to increase over time, it will be important for newspapers and magazines to captivate us and draw us in by using photographs in even more powerful and creative ways, let’s hope they are up to the challenge.
Update:
From this year’s TED conference comes this video of Jacek Utko, “a Polish newspaper designer whose redesigns for papers in Eastern Europe not only win awards, but increase circulation by up to 100%.”
(Thanks Casson)
I’m from the UK and have been living in Australia for the past year, and the newspapers are none to good here also. Newspapers are one of the things I miss the most. I used to have a whole days reading and now all I have are a few pages from the Australian papers to keep me going during lunch Okay, I am inflating the number of pages here.. If it wasn’t for the guardian Weekly every Thursday… Actually, when I was on holiday in Turkey ten years or so ago, it was possible to get the daily Guardian (as well as others) everyday. A day old, but still great!
And so most of my ‘newspaper’ reading is also on the web. Every time I go back getting the papers are a lovely treat!
best, Sean.
Nice post Brotha!
Intuitive, intelligent, and though provoking…
BLOG AWAY!
Dubs
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I think you answered your own question…. in one sentence you say “I have no clue as to why the newspaper business (or even magazines for that matter) are doing so poorly.” and then in the next paragraph you say
“I guess I just prefer to read the news online as it’s more current and up to date.” You are contributing to the decline of newspapers. Not to worry. I’m confident the newspapers and the visual arts that support them will evolve over time.
I read your piece with interest and sadness. While I share your views on the importance of photography and also accept that the Guardian, over here in the UK, is a good newspaper, I fear that the writing is on the wall for the UK press to follow the trends you talk about in the US. Notwithstanding the occasional surge in sales that an individual title might enjoy on the back of a slow release of exclusive news (see the Telegraph recently with its day by day release of information about the spending habits of our politicians) the general pattern is one of dwindling sales. The fact of the matter is that Britain is behind the US in the unstoppable shift away from print media – not ahead of it.
Advertisers are changing their spending strategies, resulting in less and less budget for the kind of photographic features we all used to like to flick through at the weekend in the newspaper magazines. I suspect they will never return.
The guardian offer another more optimistic vision of the future though, as can bee seen on their ‘on-line’ version, which, surprisingly, does represent one of the best web-based newspapers there is. Problem is – no money – the whole thing exists thanks to the revenue from the print version of the newspaper. This unsustainable model is problematic and will probably ultimately stand as a grant gesture in reality avoidance.
The times they are a changin’…. not sure how the rest of the song goes…
Keep up the good work.
J
Did you get a chance to watch this talk? http://bit.ly/xRqHD
Неплохая подборка в блоге, хорошо сделано, автору спс.