WHAT'S NEXT: INNOVATIONS IN NEWSPAPERS

I just subscribed to The Times and Sunday Times websites.

Cheap and easy: 1 GBP for one month, and after that 2 GBP a week.

Why?

Because you cannot read anywhere else smart columns like this one.

Andrew Sullivan on the real crisis of American newspapers.

A few “tapas”:

-Many US newspapers have simply become pale, quivering shadows of what they once were.

-Once, they aggressively scrutinised the powerful and exposed secrets, but they have — with some exceptions — become mouthpieces for the powerful, enablers of propaganda and prim schoolmarms when it comes to telling people what they want to know.

-A Harvard study recently examined the full record. This was its finding: “[From the 1930s to 2002] The New York Times characterised waterboarding as torture in 81.5% (44 of 54) of articles on the subject and the Los Angeles Times did so in 96.3% of articles (26 of 27). By contrast, in 2002-8 the studied newspapers almost never referred to waterboarding as torture.

-The New York Times called waterboarding torture or implied it was torture in just 2 of 143 articles (1.4%). The Los Angeles Times did so in 4.8% of articles (3 of 63). The Wall Street Journal characterised the practice as torture in just 1 of 63 articles (1.6%). USA Today never called waterboarding torture.”

-Over time this kind of editorial cowardice gets through to the average reader. She senses she is not reading a truly independent press, eager to offend, sceptical of the powerful and determined not to mince words. And so she looks elsewhere. The editors and producers of American journalism have long wondered why their industry has been in decline. Perhaps they should try looking in the mirror.

Oh, boy!

Talk about multimedia, citizens journalism, social media, new platforms, interactivity, tablets and other magic words…

That’s nothing.

That’s wrong.

That’s a distraction.

Newspapers will be saved not by gadgets, technology and buzzwords but by real journalism.

Period!

The Times of London has today this “promo” in the top of its front page:

“What women really want?

The answer is in pages 49 and 50.

Lisa Armstrong, The Times Fashion editor goes to the new Cardiff John Lewis store and reports about her findings.

The lead:

In New York, London, Milan or Paris she sits in the front row. In Cardiff she sat at the till in John Lewis.

She spends a full working day (from 9am to 6:30 pm) in the fashion floor like a regular “partner” (that’s John Lewis for staff) selling huge bags, pink shoes, dresses… and also in the wrapping counter.

Well, the feature is fantastic and revealing.

“Nationally, she writes, fashion now accounts for a third of John Lewis’s turnover… but in Cardiff, where the store is only a few months old and by far the swankiest show in town, fashion brings in 41 per cent of its revenue. Today’s target is £146,000.”

WOW!

A Fashion editor that goes to the most fancy shows, does real journalism down in the real world.

So another example of how you can energize your newspaper with real stories of real people in real places.

Again and again:

Leave your newsroom.

Turn off your computer.

Get away and just cover the real life.

That’s journalism 101.

Readers will be shock!

One of the reasons for the quick success of the new Eleftheros Typos has been what we heard all the time from Yianna Angelopoulos, our client and the new owner of ET:

“I want a different newspaper.

“A different one.

“A better and different newspaper!”

Well, if you know Mrs. A, these are marching orders.

And you better deliver what she wants.

So, when the skeptics told us that there was no way to do it in Greece …

That their journalists didn’t have the skills to produce a sophisticated and different newspaper.

That their editors were old-fashioned ones unable to lead a project like this.

That their designers didn’t have the skill to maintain high graphic standards .

That their printing presses had very bad reproduction and poor full color.

That INNOVATION didn’t have any idea about the traditions of the country.

And on, and on …

What we did was the opposite.

We trusted and empowered the local, journalists, editors, designers and printers.

And with the full support of Mrs. A and her first-class management team, we started a process of thinking, thinking, thinking, and training, training, training.

Full and extensive content, newsroom management, graphic and design models were produced (journalism encyclopedias)

So believe me, the new ET was not just a big idea, but a very precise and detailed project.

Gabriel Sama, Marta Botero, Javier Errea, Chiqui Esteban and Pablo Ramirez presented and implemented printed operational manuals that are the secret weapon of any INNOVATION project.

Our British production consultant (formerly with News International), Michael Fairhead was the technical watchdog.

Thanks to him and ET’s new printing presses, we got the quality reproduction that we wanted.

With excellent paper.

Yes, expensive newsprint.

At the end of the day, this was a content-driven project and nothing was purely cosmetic.

INNOVATION believes today more than ever that the newspapers of the future and the future of newspapers is in producing , like Mrs. A wanted, different and better newspapers.

High-quality journalism.

In Greece, too!

The pages that you can see here are from review, another new weekly supplement that, like the rest of the newspaper, has the same unique flavor of good content, good design and great BIG photos.

Yes, photojournalism in a BIG WAY is a terrific tool to enjoy a newspaper.

Enjoy them!