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A View from Across the Pond
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In the early days newspaper used to mean just that: news on paper; now that has become an oxymoron. With advances in technology, newspapers are unable to keep up with the Internet and even text messaging. Even the Internet seems slow compared to text messaging. Where I used to turn to websites for updated news throughout the day, now I just receive text messages with headlines and blurbs almost as soon as the newsrooms release them.
The same is true with magazines. In the early days, magazines really were "storehouses of information" that were published at least four times a year. But neither ink on paper nor frequency can justify the traditional definition of what journalism and media should and can do in this age.
Technology is best used in trying to deliver surprising content regularly to our audience.
For example, in England last week I couldn't wait to wake up and go to the newsstand to buy all the British papers because each one would surprise me with their front page. I may have guessed what the lead story would be but I never knew the angle or approach or details that each would offer me.
It is a shame our newspapers are so predictable in how they cover news as if nothing has changed in the last ten years in terms of technology and the role of the media. But what is perhaps most disheartening is the lack of that "pick me up" feel in American newspapers because they just don't have any surprises in their content.
Most are so predictable and report on content we have already heard, read or logged on to find out about. And the newspapers of England show why I have been warning that the major threat to the magazine industry is not the Internet but those newspapers that are becoming more and more like daily magazines. And for the sake of our magazine business, thank God the American newspapers have not realized this. It will probably take another 3-5 years for traditional newsroom folks to realize that the race with the Internet is useless just as it took a good time for the magazines of the 60s to realize that the race against television was misguided.
That's why the future is going to be a two-way street. On one side there will be newspapers that resemble more the look and feel of daily magazines with a lot of "breaking views"-as the Wall Street Journal Europe likes to call it-a lot of analysis; a lot of editorials; a lot of heart-warming, gut-wrenching information that is truly unique to that publication, and of course a lot of photos…big photos.
Something that The Independent has done a really good job of on their cover with the debate over who is for an immediate cease fire in Lebanon and who is against it. The page focuses on a clever illustration showing the world flags supporting a cease-fire side by side with the world flags that do not. This shows not only that a picture is worth a thousand words but also that newspapers are offering a creative presentation of the news-something once solely the domain of magazines.
It is needless to say that the shrinking of newspaper sizes to what the British like to call compact as opposed to tabloid has added even more to the magazine-like feel of those papers.
For example, The Guardian's July 22 edition's front page draws it readers inside to its Sudoku section without disregard to the analysis of the war in Lebanon.
A quick look inside reveals six magazine-like sections dealing with sports, travel, money, work, family and review as well as their weekend magazine, a Sudoku booklet and a television guide.
It is important to remember that these two papers are not the exception to the rule but rather the new rule. In England, only one major paper, The Daily Telegraph, is still printed in the traditional size on a daily basis. Yet even where the size remains traditional, the delivery is still magazine-like.
Even children are experiencing the shift in newspaper design and presentation. First News is a weekly paper for British kids that has bold color and magazine-like layout.
So what about magazines?
That will be my view from across the pond next time. Stay tuned.
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