I agree with many disappointed readers of El Pais.
I don’t like its last redesign.
At all.
The first design by Reinhard Gade and Julio Alonso was almost perfect.
Since then, all the changes have been just cosmetic.
El Pais, like many newspapers, doesn’t need to change the design, but the content.
The newsroom management.
The news format.
The news stategy.
To attract new and younger readers.
Young readers don’t buy newspapers for the design.
But for the content.
… and, yes, for the nice free watches (hopefully they work well).
These are the MacClassrooms in the new MacUniversities.
Apple is investing in the future.
And the futures is here, in classrooms like this one around the world.
What about newspapers?
Are we investing enough in our future readers?
I am not sure.
Children and education sell.
Yes.
All around the world.
In Austria and in Greece.
In the Kleine Zeitung and in the Eleftheros Tipos.
And gives your paper a fresh look.
No more men.
No more old people.
Welcome to the future.
Young people.
Future readers.
Future audiences.
Future communities.
Two great front pages from two different editions of the same paper.
This is serious stuff.
Brilliant design.
Brilliant illustrations.
Brilliant marketing.
That’s why this quality, popular Austrian newspaper is so successful.
Because they pay attention to women.
And to young people.
It’s as simple as that.
Try to find similar front pages around the world …
… you won’t.
So… let´s not blame TV, Internet or MySpace.
They are not killing us.
We are.
As always, Ben Bradlee is bold and direct:
“How do you cope with the Internet?
How do you cope with kids not reading enough?
There are problems of comparable scope, but his are probably harder than mine,” Ben Bradlee says of Leonard Downie Jr. challenges at the Washington Post.
The former Post executive editor tells Joe Strupp that reducing staff through attrition shouldn’t affect the paper’s quality. “I think we’ve got too many people.
You’ve got people who write three or four pieces a year.
Some people can write three or four books a year.”
Well, he is gone but still he is right.
