WHAT'S NEXT: INNOVATIONS IN NEWSPAPERS

The founder of Starbucks (7500 self-operated and 5500 licensed stores in 39 countries) explains the change of the logo, quite better than The New York Time’s laid back design critic Steven Heller.

Designed first by Terry Heckler, the iconic mermaid that beckons coffee drinkers was based of a classic 15th century Norse woodcut

By removing the words “Starbucks” and “coffee” from its green logo, Starbucks joints Apple or Nike with a no-name logo.

As The Guardian says: “this could help as the chain expands into countries that not only have a different language but a different alphabet.”

Only brands with such a great personality can do it.

Well done and really well explained.

Who is Jesse Angelo?: The leader of this project is a former managing editor of the New York Post, a tabloid that has been losing a lot of money since Murdoch bought this competitor of the New York Daily News. Angelo is a Harvard graduate and lifelong New Yorker. He began as a freelance reporter for The Post’s Page Six in 1999. He was hired full time as a news reporter, then moved to the business desk, where he quickly rose to deputy business editor. Angelo was named metropolitan editor in April 2001.“

Murdoch on The Daily one week ago: “I’m starting a paper in six weeks. A brand new paper. It will be a bit like the New York Post. But it will be national. It will only be seen on tablets. It will only employ journalists – and maybe eight to 10 technicians.”

Promotion: Amazing. Learning from Apple, News Corporation is almost silent, but the viral marketing is going crazy. Serious newspapers like The Guardian have been trap in this noisy silent-strategy publishing rumors with no facts.

Is this paper another example of “Dead On Arrival”?: That’s the main view of all the blind experts, people that have not seen anything and are killing the baby before birth.

My own take: Give them a chance. They have will, money, resources and talent to try this only-tablet national publication. If Murdoch wins, expect a lot of replicas around the world. If he fails, all of us will learn how to do it better. So, let’s wait and see. My only concern is that the time has been too short: a huge project like this cannot be done in six months.

Now you know why The Guardian is losing circulation.

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The Times editor writes today:

Dear Reader,

As you will have noticed from this morning’s paper, Times2 is back. It returns, bigger and better.

When we introduced our new daily sections earlier this year, many readers wrote to say how much they loved the greater coverage of food, fashion, health and the arts. Many others were thrilled at the introduction of Mind Games, offering more brain-aching Su Doku and more infuriating puzzles than ever before.

But many of you wrote to say how sorely you missed the second section. Letters came in saying how much you loved The Times’s distinctive run of features. It was clear how deeply you shared Times2’s passions, its sense of humour, its cares, its intelligence, its campaigning spirit.   And, even though Times2 had simply moved to a new home, many of you felt a loss. It was obvious how much you relied on a separate section for the TV and radio listings, as well as a smart guide to film, music, theatre, dance and the arts. And, most of all, you missed having a paper that you could share: The Times, in two parts – or, as one person put it, two papers for the price of one.

Well, he is wrong.

The problem with the T2 section is the content and the design.

Both are really bad.

Content and design are trashy.

That’s the problem, my dear!

“Readers want” is another excuse to change in order to avoid real changes

T2 compared with the trendy and crispy G2 of The Guardian looks like a second class section.

So instead, give me less pages, and a more and better edited newspaper.

A Compact and compelling newspaper.

Work  harder for me (reader and subscriber of The Times) and don’t be bother about focus group “instant miracle solutions”.

Many of these new separate section were created because, we were told, advertisers want it.

Well, the T2 is almost empty of paid ads.

Why?

Because advertisers know better: it’s a poor product.

Integrated or standing alone.

This doesn’t matter.

Good content and brilliant design is what really matters.

The Guardian reports:

IPC Media’s Essentials will no longer feature models or celebrities on its front cover after a survey of readers suggested they preferred to see “real women”.

Essentials was the biggest climber among the mainstream women’s monthlies in the first half of this year, with an average circulation of 115,432.

Great idea.

Good marketing.

Excellent covers.

In yesterday’s Guardian editorial, a great observation regarding to Lord Mandelson memoirs:

“The second thing to emerge is the depressing absence of any interest in ideas.

Of all the books to come out of the Labour years – by David Blunkett, Alastair Campbell, Peter Mandelson, Mo Mowlam, Lance Price and co – not a single one makes a sustained intellectual case for Labour government.

There is no passionate debate about the party’s future possibilities; nothing brave or provocative.”

A knockout message for politicians, political parties… and, yes, for newspapers too.

Many newspapers look like old cathedrals without soul.

Old bottles… with no wine inside.

And Earl Wilkinson is right too: “Empty newspaper brands don’t age like wine”

I got a few minutes ago this message from The Times of London.

Well Lord Mandelson, “The Princess of Darkness” (a poor soul now trying to stay under the political sun after losing the power) sells excerpts of his memories to The Times, not to The Guardian or The Observer.

And Rupert Murdoch plays in a big way this exclusive content adding some extra video and graphic features in order to tell the market that if you are a “club member” you have some “membership perks”.

Good move!

Cameron and Clegg: neck to neck.

Brown, toasted.

BBC wins versus ITV and SKY on best set and best presenter.

The Guardian, pro-Labour but now pro-Liberal Democrat, makes Cameron the winner with this column written by his associate editor Martin Kettle:

The central character in the three-man drama that has so energised British politics this month is neither Brown nor Clegg but David Cameron. It is Cameron who, after a bad debut two weeks ago came back with a stronger performance last week and who, in Jeremy Hunt’s phrase, faced the most important job interview of his life.

I just got the last mailing about the INMA/INNOVATION Oxford Tablet Summit.

With two new speakers.

The right quotes from the editor of The Guardian, Alan Rusbridger:

“A tabloid newspaper page seemed exotically large, a broadsheet like a street hoarding. The iPad just seemed natural.”

“Has the Guardian ever looked more beautiful?”

And a great illustration by Luis Grañena.

Click here for more information and the full program.

The Guardian reports today about another “smart” newspaper manager:

David Montgomery, the chief executive of the European newspaper group Mecom, received a recession-busting 51% increase in his total remuneration package in 2009 to £874,000. Montgomery accepted a £290,000 bonus, despite Mecom posting a 28% fall in profits and laying off 850 staff last year, on top of a basic salary of £540,000.

We need batter managers.

Quite better.

Today more than ever.

Managing in good times is easy

Managing in bad times shows who is a good leader.