WHAT'S NEXT: INNOVATIONS IN NEWSPAPERS

This is my personal estimate about newspaper reading and internet navigation habits, updating an interesting media profile of the new generation of 21-year-old-people included in a presentation by David Armano.

Today’s 21-year-old has…

Watched 20,000 hours of TV.

Talked 12,000 hours on the phone.

Played 10,000 hours of video games.

Navigated 10,000 hours on Internet.

Streamed 1,000 hours of online videos.

And spent only 250 hours reading newspapers.

Sir Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive of WPP, blogs from Davos at the Financial Times.

Bad, boring blogger.

But great FT idea.

Pure advertising.

With great insights.

Are you ready?

What about this one?

“Participant numbers should be reduced.

Security is also very tight, aggravated by the crush.

There are heavy lines and queuing, especially early in the morning.”

Many newspaper publishers are looking for more efficiency.

Well, don’t do more of the same.

Change and creativity are the most efficient ways to survive the crisis.

Will Pavia reports in The Times of London that Norwich is looking for an apprentice crier to bellow its news across the city.

The enormous Mr. David Bullock (in the picture) with his tricorn hat, white beard, medals and fancy red suit is the most well known person in Norwich.

The position was advertised this week: the successful applicant will become Mr. Bullock’s apprentice and will take over as town crier when he finally stops shouting. “I’d like to think I will go on until I curl my toes up,” he said. “But I’m 75 and the council wants to get a replacement sorted out in case I pop off suddenly.”

What a great story!

I remember the Spanish “pregoneros” of my teenager summers in Molinos and Alcañiz (Teruel, Spain).

They were the best 24/7 breaking news system of these small towns.

The Times tells us today that:

Town criers were particularly important when most of the population was illiterate. Though their origin is much older, the position was formalised after the Norman Conquest of 1066.

— So important was their work that assaulting or interfering with a town crier in his duties was once a treasonable offence.

— About 200 town criers are active in Britain, which leads the world in the revival of crying. Criers also work across Europe, the United States, Canada and Australia.

— The Ancient and Honourable Guild of Town Criers, which celebrated its 30th anniversary last year, was founded after the 1978 British Championships, with the stated aims of “promoting prestigious public pronouncements” and defining the rules of crying.

— Britain did well at the European criers’ competition with a clean sweep in the Best Crier, Best Dressed Crier and Best Dressed Crier’s Escort categories.

From Robert Picard’s blog:

Publishers and editors just don’t get it.

They have to stop pining that the old days were better and they have to stop blaming everything and everyone but themselves for the lack of value in their papers.

What readers need—if they are going to keep buying papers—is content and an experience with news that they cannot get elsewhere.

It has to be BETTER than that on TV, Internet, and mobile applications; it has to DIFFERENT than what they get from those sources; and it has to be news for those who LOVE news.

If editors and publishers don’t start delivering those qualities, they will soon have to stop delivering papers altogether.

The cool blog thinkstolookat.com reported a few weeks ago the opening of a temporary Monocle shop on George Street in London (just off Marylebone High Street).

On sale are copies of the magazine as well as back issues, Monocle x Comme des Garçons Scent One: Hinoki, Porter bags, Stools, scarf’s and more.

We can’t help but be impressed, aside form the merchandise and an ultra dynamic website, the shop is another example of what a magazine can be – not something that is restricted to only print and web, but a truly active and engaging brand in its own right.

Small.

And chic.

The Monocle Shop, says the magazine, showcases the full Monocle range of products that have been created in partnership with leading design brands such as Comme des Garçons, Porter, Valextra, Artek and Drakes London.

The shop also stocks a selection of curated, crafted products, from stationery, to cosy knitwear, to CDs, that our editors have found on their global travels.

And, of course, we have the full collection of Monocle magazines along with other titles we like.

Just nine square meters in size, it’s the ideal place for a bit of personal indulgence.

Drop by – we’d love to show you around.

The Monocle Shop
2A George Street,
Marylebone,
London W1U 3QS
+ 44 (0) 20 7486 8770
shop@monocle.com
Shop hours
Monday – Saturday
11am – 7pm
Sunday
12 – 5pm

It’s outside the Harvard Yard.

But it’s one of the university’s most visited places.

During my stay at Harvard, I used to buy my European newspapers and magazines there.

The narrow place was always full of us – students or professors from other countries – trying to get news before the online world existed.

And all of us were shocked a few months ago with these (wrong) headlines:

The decline of the newspaper industry has hit Harvard Square’s most recognizable building.

. . .

A Harvard Square landmark may soon fall victim to the decline of the newspaper business.

. . .

And the last owner added:

“Nobody buys newspapers anymore.

People are reading everything online mostly.”

Well, now it seems that the kiosk suffered most during the times when Harvard Square was undergoing major renovations, closing off lanes, and making it hard for drivers to pull over and park without getting a ticket.

Founded in 1955 by Sheldon Cohen, who started out hustling newspapers in the subway with his father, Out of Town News moved in 1984 to its current home, a handmade brick and limestone shelter with vaulted wood ceilings that was built in 1928 as an entrance to the subway.

It is now on the National Register of Historic Places and, according to the city, is an “internationally recognized symbol of Harvard Square.”

So, against all the early obituaries for the emblematic newsstand, on January 8, four vendors placed bids on leasing Out of Town News — a city-owned, one-story wooden building with 451 square feet of rentable space.

And the winner was Mike Patel.

He will keep the newsstand the same, and he’s promising to sell at least as big a variety of international publications as the newsstand sells now.

Patel owns Pembroke-based Muckey’s Corporation and operates newsstands and convenience stores around the state.

He’ll pay the city of Cambridge $140 a square foot in monthly rent.

Other official bidders included the student-run organization Unofficial Tours LLC at $136 per square foot; Gateway Newsstands at $100 per square foot; and Kallol Barua, who currently manages the building, with $106.43 per square foot.

So, my dear, despite fears that an era may be coming to an end, the landmark “Out of Town Newsstand” in Harvard Square will remain open.

John Kenneth Galbraith, who used to buy Le Monde there every day, would be smiling today.

Our Harvard newspaper and magazine haven is again open for business.

Sorry, but it was an early call!

Picture by Todd Van Hoosear/Flickr

In Spain, soitu.es has launched elselector, a real “first” in what INOVATION calls “the best of the best” news Web site trends.

If you read Spanish, you can follow here an excellent tutorial for the new product.

A group of specialists filter the Web and select “the best of the best” for you.

Simple.

Useful.

Smart.

Needs a better design, but it’s a brilliant idea.

Congratulations!

UPDATE: Looking at some of the selections, the choices are not very wise.

But this is the start.

And elselector’s filters will get better.

The readers will be able to discriminate between the good and bad ones.

At the end of the day the audience and the community’s taste will rule.

Yes, perhaps you cannot trust all these experts, but at least they show you an interesting way to the future.

Online caviar mixed with some fast food recommendations …

Welcome to the Sprint NOW dashboard!

Goodby has launched a new site for Sprint that shows off the tools and capabilities of the mobile brand’s Now Network broadband cards.

It seems to me that that’s the way to go.

Quite different from all of this cloned crap in news Web design.

Yes, it’s too busy, but exciting.

Amazing.

Welcome to the future of digital media design.

Today, online media is very far from this level of sophistication.

But wait and see.