WHAT'S NEXT: INNOVATIONS IN NEWSPAPERS

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 Times of London has every Wednesday a Fashion section that includes “real people” as models.

The same Essential’s magazine idea but in a newspaper.

Street fashion.

Real people.

Readers as models.

First class pictures.

Great style production.

A sure winner.

In today’s Times of London, the 70,000th issue of the paper, Miriam Gonzalez’s ‘tortilla de patata” gets big marks.

Really didn’t the tortilla sent to James Harding, the scolded Editor of The Times, as she explains:

“My mother made her tortilla for the editor, so it comes with all the love of my family. My children love tortillas and so does Nick. It’s delicious and cheap; real austerity cooking.

“Every Spanish person will tell you that their tortilla is the best, and my mother and I compete for whose is better. It doesn’t matter what kind of potatoes you use. There’s no secret to it, but the key is flipping it over at the end — you have to do a few to get it right. A few foreigners add chorizo to theirs, but that’s a big no-no in Spain, just as we would never put chorizo in a paella.

“There are some good restaurants to get it in London; we like Brindisa and Moro. In Spain, it’s traditional for us to go out and have a beer and a tortilla pincho — a slice on top of a piece of bread. As a child, on school trips I would have slices of tortilla in a sandwich too.”

The recipe?

Here it is:

Ingredients

Four large potatoes

½ an onion

6 eggs

Olive oil

Salt

Method

Slice the potatoes thinly and finely chop the onion. Fry them together slowly in 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan on a low heat until soft. Then place them in a colander to strain out some of the oil.

Beat the eggs in a bowl. Add a tablespoon of olive oil to the pan, place on a medium heat and add the potatoes, onions and eggs with a pinch of salt.

Fry until cooked on one side, then carefully turn over using a palette knife and a plate to cook on the other side. Serve hot or cold.

Looks good in the picture!

(Picture by Richard Pohle for The Times)

The Editor of The Times got yesterday this letter from a well known reader, Miriam Gonzalez,  DeputyPrime Minister Nick Clegg Spanish wife:

Sir, Now that Spain has won the World Cup and Iker Casillas demonstrated on Sunday that he is an outstanding goalkeeper regardless of whether his girlfriend, Sara Carbonero, watches him from the touchline or not, it may be time for you to eat a bit of humble pie. Trying to blame Sara for Spain’s initial lacklustre performance while she was simply doing her job (“Spanish inquisition blames WAG after Swiss vanquish the favourites”, June 17) was not worthy of a newspaper that should treat women for who they are and not simply for what their male partners do. Miriam Gonzalez, London SW15

James Harding, the Editor, has replied to Ms González:

“Congratulations on your team’s victory in the World Cup. You in particular will be glad to know that we scrupulously recognise women for what they are and not what their partners do. We are not over fond of humble pie but if you, Sara Carbonero or Iker Casillas are ever passing, please do drop by for a slice of tortilla.”

Not a bad deal.

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!

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!

Today, in a letter to the editor:

“Sir, Has the World Cup been a disaster? Yes, it has. My parrot has learnt to mimic the vuvuzela”

Dr. Alun Stedman Stevenage.

The Times and The Sunday Times are ready to charge for access to their online editions.

A bold move.

Typical of Rupert Murdoch.

Like the typical trashing that he gets in the last few years regarding his fight against the “free for all”

Well, very soon we will know.

And… what if Rupert Murdoch is right?

I will suspend my judgement.

He loves newspapers and is taking big risks.

So I will not be surprise if, again, he right.

UPDATE:

Watch here Rupert Murdoch on the iPad, Apple and Steve Jobs.

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.

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!