NYT LeBron sports front

Readers care as much or as little as they always did. Doesn't change the fact a well-designed paper is better than a poorly designed paper. With a big event, a well designed section can help sell your paper like crazy. Look at the Plain Dealer.

 

That's the gist of it. Readers shouldn't even notice good design. It's like a good umpiring job. But you'll always know that if a section is not well designed, it could have been better.

 

Which one would you buy?

This one?



Or, this one?

 

Design does not move product in the newspaper industry.
This has been amply studied.
As such resources need to be better managed and allocated.

 

I would argue that people care about design on the rare instances when people might want to keep the issue as a collectible. I'm guessing the days of that happening are close to dead, but I'm guessing there were people in Cleveland who wanted to keep a copy of Saturday's paper as a keepsake.

 

Provably and demonstrably false

Presentation matters it always has and always will.

 

Nicely argued.
Because you say so, right?
You're looking at double-digit losses per quarter and you still want to play art class in 2014?

 

So the answer is what, give up? Newspapers aren't moving product because the business model is flawed. A great design is just as relevant to someone buying a paper than an APSE-winning profile.

 

Neither.

I would read their stories online for free.

 

Except...no one who turned to the New York Times Sports Section on Saturday July 12 needed to know that James had announced his return to Cleveland. They already knew that particular fact. In this instance, for this story, the newspaper was not about printing a fact that was unknown to the overwhelming majority (90%+) of their readers. I understand that on December 8, 1941 and September 12, 2001 everyone know the lead story as well before turning to the front page of their respective newspaper. But this is, obviously, different in so many ways.

Yes this was lazy. It was done before. But the idea, not the execution, deserves some credit if not debate.

 

Newspapers can't be fixed (or at least the bleeding stanched) until we figure out what we're trying to save.
And also figure out simultaneously what is a relic of the distant past.
Such as, say, the tricked-out design centerpiece.

 

The Plain Dealer "sold" because of the event, not because of any design that went into presenting the event.

They had originally planned for an 8-page special section. But advertisers were falling over themselves to be in it, and they finally went up to 20 pages before turning off the spigot ("We need to get this thing out, after all.")

And that was before anyone knew how it would be designed. Advertisers knew the event would sell.