In partial fulfilment of the Limerick School of Art and Design (LIT) Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Visual Communications
“The UK newspaper business: examining recent changes in the industry, and the online delivery of news.”
Olivia O’Sullivan 2010
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Contents
Introduction
3
Chapter 1
6
Newspaper design
Chapter 2
18
Newspaper websites
Chapter 3
31
Mobile news access, social networking & microblogging
Conclusion
43
Bibliography
46
Image Sources
51
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Introduction
The international newspaper industry is in a crisis. Circulation is falling rapidly in markets like the US and the UK, while news organisations are doing everything in their power to adapt to the changing news marketplace in an attempt to steer their respectful ships through uncertain waters. The British daily national newspaper industry recognises seven publications as their “quality papers”, these being the Daily Telegraph, The Times, the Financial Times, The Guardian, The Independent, The Herald, and The Scotsman. The other dailies are the following tabloid titles: The Sun, the Daily Mail, the Daily Mirror, the Daily Star, the Daily Express, the Daily Record and the Racing Post. Fourteen out of these fifteen publications (with the sole exception of the massively discounted Daily Star) recorded decreases in circulation sales according to the latest ABC1 figures released in December 2009 for their performance during the month of November.2 3 This is a common trend that has seen UK national newspaper circulations decline year on year this last decade.
The purpose of this thesis is to explore the UK newsaper industry, and particularly looking at the titles that have made significant changes in recent times in an attempt to better cater for their readers. This paper will also examine the industry from a graphic design perspective, with attention to new media emerging through online portals which not only affect journalists in modern newsrooms but also the designers in the publishing industry. In doing so one will ascertain how the masses are getting their
1
ABC is the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Owned by the media industry, ABC independently verifies and reports on media performance. http://www.abc.org.uk 03 Jan 2010 15:55 2 ‘Circulations of all quality papers fall in November’ by Oliver Luft, 11 December 2009 http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=44781&c=1 03 Jan 2010 15:35 3 ‘Mirror drops 10 per cent in face of cut price Sun and Star’ by Dominic Ponsford, 11 December 2009 http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=44780&c=1 03 Jan 2010 15:45 3 of 52
news, what devices they are using to access it, and what is driving these users to locate a news story online from one news organisation ahead of another.
Chapter one provides an introduction to typographical design in newspapers, and examines the redesigns undertaken in recent years by The Guardian and The Times, as well as the reactions – both positive and negative – to their ‘new looks’ from prominent writers. It also looks at the contrasting views held by different titles to the online presence of their newspaper and highlights the danger in one particular case of an ‘old-school’ closed approach to new media opportunities.
Chapter two explores newspaper websites, and the websites of The Guardian, The Times and The Independent are examined tracing common trends in their contrasting designs using four sub-sections. It also explores these websites in terms of ‘accessibility’ – access for users with a disability that would limit or prohibit their access otherwise – and details the disappointing results from two studies undertaken of UK newspaper websites from an accessibility standpoint. In addition this chapter investigates The Guardian’s attitude to their digital presence citing some examples of their forward thinking which is perhaps why their award-winning website is the most successful of all UK newspaper websites, a fact that was compounded by the news that guardian.co.uk set a new record for UK national newspaper web traffic in November 2009 with 35.8 million global unique users.4
Chapter three investigates developing mobile technology which has seen the smartphone emerge as the latest medium for news access. The chapter focuses on the iPhone in particular. It examines online mobile access to content from The Times, The 4
‘Guardian sets new web record with 35m’ by Dominic Ponsford, 22 December 2009 http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=44819&c=1 03 Jan 2010 18:55 4 of 52
Guardian and The Independent newspapers and illustrates the difference between viewing online news from the original newspaper websites, from their mobile websites, and from downloadable ‘apps’ – applications that are developed by the news organisations. Furthermore it explores the phenomenon of social networking (e.g. Facebook), bookmarking (e.g. Digg) and microblogging (e.g. Twitter) websites which newspapers concede are driving significant traffic to their websites. The chapter further examines the positioning of Twitter and the postmodernist ideals it upholds and looks at the controversial role of news aggregators.
Given the fact that, in chapters two and three – particularly the final chapter, the subject matter is so current and is of an online nature, much of the research has been gathered online from websites of repute. The business of news is a complex and extensive subject matter that offers much points for discussion but, for the purpose of this thesis, one must be selective with the lines of enquiry. Therefore radio and television, while they play a principal role in the delivery of news, are not discussed here. The focus is the news of newspapers, in print and online.
The conclusion presents us with a picture of the current state of the newspaper business and the challenges facing it to determine the future of the newspaper industry.
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Chapter 1
In his 1982 book ‘The Grid’, Allen Hurlburt explains that from earliest history, man has used his sense of proportion as seen in nature to guide him in the arrangement of objects in harmonious relationship with each other and the space they occupy. Wherever plans have been called for in the building of objects, the division of areas, or the decoration of flat surfaces, grids have been involved.5
The grid is a fundamental element in typographical structure and a vital tool in good editorial design, along with the ‘typography’ itself. A conclusive definition of typography in today’s terms is often debated, it can mean the lettering as in the case above, but is commonly used to describe the process of working with layout and type. In the book ‘Type & Typography’ by Phil Baines and Andrew Haslam, the authors examine definitions of the term ‘typography’ resulting in their own definition as follows: “Typography: The mechanical notation and arrangement of language”.6
Furthermore, in an article first published in The Designer, no.167, January 1967 entitled ‘Typography is a grid’, the author Anthony Froshaug declared, “Grid structures are implicit in the word typography.” He continued: To mention both typographic, and, in the same breath/sentence, grids, is strictly tautologous. The word typography means to write/print using standard elements; to use standard elements implies some modular relationship between such elements; since such relationship is twodimensional, it implies the determination of dimensions which are both horizontal and vertical.7
5
Hurlburt, Allen. The Grid (John Wiley & Sons, 1982) p9 Baines, Paul & Haslam, Andrew, Type & Typography (Laurence King Publishing, 2005) p7 3 http://www.hyphenpress.co.uk/journal/2000/08/21/typography_is_a_grid April 16, 2009 21:30 Article first published in The Designer, no.167, January 1967, published in book Anthony Froshaug: Typography & texts / Documents of a life. ‘Typography is a grid’ was first reprinted in Design Dialogue, no. 1, 1969: a magazine edited by students at Stafford College of Art and Design. More recently, ‘Typography is a grid’ has been reprinted within Looking Closer 3, edited by Michael Bierut and others for Allworth Press (New York, 1999). 6 of 52 6
Fig 1.1 Le Corbusier’s Modulor design system
Hurlburt introduced Le Corbusier’s system of architectural proportion in The Grid, called the ‘Modulor’8, which became the foundation stone for most design systems and modern grids [Fig. 1.1]. This was primarily concerned with architectural form, but Le Corbusier was quick to point out its application to other areas, including the design of the printed page.9
8
The architect Le Corbusier developed an elaborate design system based on the golden section and the human proportions. He called the system the Modulor and built it around three main points of the anatomy – the top of the head, the solar plexus, and the tip of the raised hand. This inspired typographic designers of Germany and Switzerland to create the modular systems that would transfer utilitarian makeup sheets to design-oriented modern grids. 9 Hurlburt, Allen, The Grid (John Wiley & Sons, 1982) p15 7 of 52
Fig. 1.2 The Herald newspaper, based on grid design by Massimo Vignelli
The same book features an example of a grid design created by Massimo Vignelli for The Herald, a New York Sunday newspaper, in 1971, which was then considered an outstanding example of modern newspaper design [Fig. 1.2].10
The Guardian, The Times and The Independent are close rivals in the national daily UK newspaper business, (along with the Daily Telegraph and The Financial Times who remain broadsheets) and have undergone significant changes in recent times. The Independent became the first of the daily British broadsheets to make the move to tabloid in 2003, in an effort to revitalise the title and combat falling circulation figures across the industry, and was followed by The Times downsizing in 2004, and The Guardian downsizing in 2005. Initially both The Independent and The Times produced what they called ‘compact’ editions which were published along with their
6
ibid p36 8 of 52
broadsheets but eventually both dropped the broadsheet altogether. The tabloid size ‘compact’ edition suited commuters because it was easier to read on public transport and to carry during the day, and female readers especially preferred the new size.11
In both cases of The Guardian’s and The Times’ recent redesigns, new printing presses were in situ at the newspapers giving them the option of full colour printing which they never had before. The Guardian implemented their new size at the same time as the rest of the design changes, while The Times had changed size in 2004, but the recent redesign incorporating the new full colour presses was not until 2008. Many writers criticised The Times’ 2008 redesign as taking place simply because of the new colour availability.
The redesign of The Guardian newspaper in 2005 was a dramatic and controversial overhaul that had as many critics as it had fans when it first appeared on the shelves on September 12, 2005 [Fig. 1.3]. The first of the changes was a move away from broadsheet size to the new ‘Berliner’ format. This newspaper format is more often seen across Europe, in titles like Le Monde and Repubblica, and is considered middle ground between the broadsheet and the tabloid – bigger than tabloid and smaller than broadsheet.
Before The Guardian’s redesign, both The Independent and The Times had reduced from broadsheet to tabloid, so this move, while different in format, was reflecting the UK trend in the newspaper business as titles battled against decreases in circulation. Design critic and writer Rick Poynor, is his piece for Design Observer, called the
11
‘Downsizing: how newspapers got smaller’ by Chris Tryhorn http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2005/sep/12/pressandpublishing.newspaperformats1 05.05.09 11:50 9 of 52
format “an inspired alternative”12, and his overall reaction to the new format was a positive one after some initial worries about the centre fold and large teasers above the masthead affecting the impact of the front page.
Fig. 1.3 The old masthead from The Guardian of June 21st, 2005, and the new design of The Guardian newspaper launched September 12, 2005
The second major change was the controversial new masthead. Using the new typeface family ‘Guardian Egyptian’, commissioned for the redesign, the new lowercase masthead is reversed out of a blue bar. “It is no match for Hillman’s classic
12 ‘The Guardian’s New European Look’ http://www.designobserver.com/archives/entry.html?id=6343 24.04.09 01:42 10 of 52
and I doubt it will prove as durable” Poynor wrote13. Creative Review stated” David Hillman’s old masthead [Fig. 1.3 behind] was genuinely innovative and had a real tone of voice. The new one is just an OK bit of corporate design that could have come from an internal newsletter for a bank.”14
Speaking to Design Week, CDT Design founder Mike Dempsey too was not a fan of the new masthead design, “The design was really about nurturing a good piece of work done years ago, but its unique selling point has been thrown away and the paper now has to fight all over again on a design front”15.
Another significant change was the new size of the G2 daily feature supplement [Fig. 1.4] which used to be tabloid in size when it accompanied the broadsheet, and now is A4 in size to accompany the Berliner. Poynor is less convinced by this format change, “As a tabloid, it worked perfectly. Now stapled, it has shrunk to half the Berliner, making it more like a magazine, though it’s still printed on newsprint.”16 Creative Review agreed, “it just feels too darn small, which is strange seeing as it’s almost exactly A4, the same size as nearly every glossy magazine on the newsstand.”17
13 ibid 14 Creative Review Nov 2005 p102 15 ‘Downsize to stay competitive’ Design Week 22.09.05 p8 16 ‘The Guardian’s New European Look’ http://www.designobserver.com/archives/entry.html?id=6343 24.04.09 01:42 17 Creative Review Nov 2005 p102 11 of 52
Fig. 1.4 The G2 feature supplement reduced to A4 size
The Times has implemented several changes over the last number of years, starting with the introduction of its ‘compact’ version in 2004. In 2006, Neville Brody’s Research Studios carried out a low-key redesign introducing a bespoke font and subtle visual changes. In 2008, when new editor James Harding had been in the role just six months, he iniated a redesign of his own to make use of their new full-colour printing presses.
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Fig. 1.5 The Times after its 2008 redesign
“Colossal errors” and “a terrible mess” were just two of the comments by Roy Greenslade, media commentator and Professor of Journalism at London’s City University, in his column piece in the (London) Evening Standard18. Other writers were not as harsh but nonetheless all had criticisms. Greenslade slates Harding’s decision to move what The Times calls its ‘leading articles’ from the comment section to page two, which is acknowledged as the least-read page in any paper. Newspaper veteran Alan Geere applauds the bold move however in an article for the Press Gazette and he reinforced the same argument in an article in Inpublishing Magazine
18 ‘The Times a-changing for worse with dismal design’ 04.06.08 by Roy Greenslade [published in the London Evening Standard, 4 June 2008] http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-business/article-23490103-details/The+Times+achanging+for+worse+with+dismal+redesign/article.do 01.05.09 17:59 13 of 52
saying “what’s not to like? Page 2 is traditionally a tricky graveyard… so putting it to good use makes sound sense.”19 20
The Times received the award for ‘newspaper of the year’ at the British Press Awards 2009 for having “impressively raised the depth and quality of its reporting, especially its international coverage, while retaining a populist "highbrow" touch.” And for its “precise redesign” which “expertly showcases the strong stories and writing that make this a great paper… The new editor has miraculously transformed this newspaper by his decision to switch the leaders to page two with a vital column of cross-references on the right-hand side.”21
Fig. 1.6 [right] Times2 – The Times feature section
19 ‘Redesign time?’ by Alan Geere 13 June 2008 [published in Inpublishing Magazine September/October 2008] http://www.inpublishing.co.uk/kb/articles/redesign_time.aspx 02.05.09 11:25 20 ‘The Times redesign: And the reason for this was?’ 13.06.08 by Alan Geere http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=6&storycode=41399&c=1 01.05.09 22:56 21 ‘British Press Awards 2009’ http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=43456 14 October 2009 23:45 14 of 52
Other changes introduced include reduced headline sizes, increased photo sizes sometimes with more than half the page devoted to an image, the return of infographics, and the revamped Times2 second section which now has 32 pages instead of the previous 24.
In the article for InPublishing magazine, Alan Geere stated “Unless a redesign is backed up by a thorough overhaul of the content, it can feel like a shuffling of the same poor hand”.22 It is impossible therefore to examine the redesign of a newspaper without also looking at the treatment of the editorial content. Frances Stead Sellers, author of ‘Embracing Change’ an essay in American Journalism Review, spoke with Simon Kelner, editor of The Independent, and Alan Rusbridger of The Guardian. Stead Sellers looked at the contrasting editorial voice and values of the publications following both of their redesigns. She also examined their contrasting views of the online presence of the news titles with Kelner saying “My only job is to sell copies of my newspaper”, while Rusbridger at The Guardian considers the role as selling news rather than newspapers, with Guardian.co.uk at that time receiving more than 13 million unique visitors each month (this is now up to 35million) and making a seven-figure profit. Stead Sellers reveals The Guardian runs classes for staff to learn how to start a blog and how to use a digital camera or iPod, all aimed at making them feel apart of the operation’s digital future.23
At this point in the inquiry it is becoming obvious that, while several of the British dailies have downsized in a unified trend, their overall approach going forward is considerably different from each other. The news business has changed dramatically
22
‘Redesign time?’ by Alan Geere 13 June 2008 [published in Inpublishing Magazine September/October 2008] http://www.inpublishing.co.uk/kb/articles/redesign_time.aspx 02.05.09 11:25 23 ‘Embracing Change’ American Journalism Review Oct/Nov 2006 p54-57 15 of 52
in the last two decades with the internet becoming a primary news source for many, so newspapers have to find their place amongst the new media. They are no longer the first stop for news, as they may have been during the first world war. Radio, television, and now the internet, reach people much faster so newspapers have to offer something different. In fact Kelner told an interview published in Designing News, a book launched in 2008 by the firm Cases Associats that redesigned The Independent, “There has to be a central element of the newspaper that is about giving people information, but the idea that people buy a newspaper as a primary source of information is as old-fashioned as the horse-drawn carriage”. Kelner maintained in the same article that the internet should be a secondary priority because no one had worked out how to make money from it. "Print is still a much more powerful brand than any version of the same on the internet. The idea that people will stop reading a product in print, whatever it might be, is nonsense," he said. "I am absolutely convinced that a newspaper has much more authority, more experience and more power and that this is the reason advertisers persist with us."24
24
‘The Independent: Kelner says it's time to rethink 'viewspaper' front pages’ by Stephen Brook http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jun/05/theindependent.pressandpublishing 05.05.09 12:50 16 of 52
Fig. 1.7 Graph charting UK national newspaper circulation decline
Kelner seemed confident then but it is difficult to see how they will all survive in the long term. The March 2009 ABC circulation figures reveals The Daily Telegraph circulation at 824,883 (down 5.63 per cent), The Times is at 600,210 (down 3.53 per cent), the Financial Times is at 431,900 (down 5.06 per cent), The Guardian is at 340,952 (down 4.80 per cent), and The Independent is at 205,308 (down 16.74 per cent). Circulation is falling everywhere and The Independent has seen sales plummet.25 An all-encompassing approach similar to The Guardian is surely the way forward – they may be down 4.8 per cent but let us not forget those 35 million unique visitors each month. Only time will tell but such a closed approach could be a dangerous one for The Independent.
25
‘March ABCs: Daily Star continues to shine bright’ by Owen Amos http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=43508&c=1 05.05.09 13:05 17 of 52
Chapter 2
In The New Yorker dated April 7, 1956 A.J. Liebling famously said: “People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news”.26 These days we may be confusing a whole lot more as long gone are the days when our news delivery was from newspapers alone. Nowadays an effective website is a vital tool for all newspapers. The designs of many newspaper websites can appear to be quite similar but this may be due to the fact that each news title faces the same set of challenges when developing their website. The biggest of these is how to manage and disply the huge amount of content they usually wish to offer. The solution to this is, more often than not, the same solution applied to the design of the print newspaper, as we saw in chapter one, where a grid based approach is undertaken.
Grid based layouts were one of a list of common trends in newspaper websites identified by writer and experienced web designer Steven Snell for Smashing Magazine. The grid is a popular choice not only because it is one of the most effective ways to manage and organize a large amount of content, but also for the sharp look it creates.27 The other trends he acknowledged were the colour schemes, header and sidebar banners, top navigation, and tabbed content areas. “Most news websites use dark text on a white background. Obviously, these websites contain a huge volume of content, and readability is important… A large percentage of news websites also use blue and red in addition to a dark gray or black for text. Blue is extremely common for headlines, article titles and links. Red is often used sparingly as an accent colour. Some news websites also mix in more colours in other places, such as in the navigation.”28
26
Brighton, Paul & Foy, Dennis News Values, (SAGE Publications, 2007) page2 ‘Newspaper Website Design: Trends And Examples’ By Steven Snell http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/11/11/newspaper-website-design-trends-and-examples/ 15 October 2009 22:50 28 ibid 27
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If we take a look at the home pages of The Guardian, The Times, and The Independent we will see that Snell’s colour observations are substantiated in all three examples. Using his observations as a starting point, each newspaper site in question will now be examined to analyse the navigation, the grid, the use of colour, the advertising on the website, and how users access content on each.
Fig. 2.1 The Guardian, The Times and The Independent website home pages
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The Guardian/Times/Independent Newspapers’ Websites: Navigation, Grid & Rich Media All three websites use a clean grid-based design and a two-level navigation menu above the content. The Guardian home page [see Fig 2.2] has four distinct columns (article pages change to a three-column grid), with the news text links in the first two wider columns, and rotating image links in the third, and less serious content as well as site navigation links in the fourth. Most stories are just a headline or a headline with a brief description (which link to the full article), and thumbnail images as well as a video box are used which break up the text and attract the viewer’s attention.
Fig. 2.2 The Guardian website home page & article page Thursday, October 15th 2009
The Times [see Fig 2.3] website uses three distinct columns, with nearly all the article links in the first left-hand column. While several article excerpts on the home page include thumbnails, there are no large images for featured articles as we saw in the previous example. A standalone tall picture box navigates between several select captioned news photos instead. The Independent’s home page [see Fig 2.4] uses four columns. Main articles run down the first two columns which merge below the 20 of 52
‘fold’29 into one wider column. Both thumbnail and large images are used to draw the viewer in.
Fig. 2.3 The Times website home page & article page Thursday, October 15th 2009
The Guardian/Times/Independent Newspapers’ Websites: Use of Colour In keeping with their branding, blue headers and blue headlines are used on The Guardian’s website, with effective use of colour in the navigational links at the top of the page. Colourful borders add visual appeal and change colour as the user cycles through the different sections of the website. TimesOnline.co.uk employs the use of a bright green colour in the header as part of the website’s own identity. Blue headlines are used with the first story having a bigger headline font size to emphasise it as the ‘lead’ story. The Independent’s website employs a sand colour of various tones in the header, divider bars and some text to distinguish its site, and blue headlines are used with occasional red accents. All sites use dark text on a white background.
29
This is the traditional newspaper term for the physical ‘fold’ in a broadsheet newspaper and anything ‘above the fold’ was intended to persuade people to buy the newspaper based on what they saw. However it is also used in an online context to indicate the content that appears before users have to scroll to read the page. Unlike newspapers, exactly what is above the fold isn't fixed. The ‘fold’ line, or the bottom of the screen, depends on the user's screen resolution. http://www.webhostingtalk.com/wiki/Online_advertising_terminology#Above_the_fold 16 October 2009 00:55 21 of 52
The Guardian/Times/Independent Newspapers’ Websites: Advertising By means of earning revenue from their websites, most newspapers will display banner ads in the headers on many pages. They also often feature tall “skyscraper” banners 120 x 600 pixels in the right sidebar and many mix in some AdSense30 or other text link ads. Snell revealed that the Guardian.co.uk home page uses little advertising (it appears to just have the 730 x 90 pixel banner above the header), but individual article pages include the header banner, and 300 x 250 ad at the top of the sidebar31 but on my examination at the time of writing this sidebar ad had changed to a skyscraper ad [see Fig. 1.1] so it would seem they alternate layouts, allowing for both ad sizes. There is also a Google AdSense box with three text links but this is at the very end of the page. The TimesOnline home page uses the header banner and a 300 x 250 ad in the right sidebar, as do the article pages. Again there is also an AdSense box on the article pages but it is at the very end of the page. The Independent’s home page contains a lot of advertising with a header banner and a 300 x 250 ad in the wider third column, as well as a skyscraper ad in the right sidebar. This is the most advertising we have seen in our examples on a home page. Article pages take on a different format with just two columns, with the first column very wide and containing the article and photo. Again there is a lot of advertising with the header banner, the 300 x 250 ad and the skyscraper ad in the right sidebar, as well as three Google AdSense boxes.
30
Google AdSense is a program that lets the website owner earn advertising revenue from each page on their website. AdSense delivers relevant text and image ads that are precisely targeted to the site content. If a Google search box is added to the site, AdSense delivers relevant text ads that are targeted to the Google search results pages generated by the visitors’ search request. http://www.google.com/services/adsense_tour/index.html 15 October 2009 23:30 31 ibid 22 of 52
Fig. 2.4 The Independent website home page & article page Thursday, October 15th 2009
The Guardian/Times/Independent Newspapers’ Websites: Accessing Content Many news websites use tabbed content areas that allow visitors to see the ‘most popular articles’, ‘recent articles’, ‘most commented articles’ etc. This is sometimes used in the sidebar, and other times in the main content area. It allows for more control by users over what content and links they can quickly see, and it can save space in the design by making more content accessible in a specific area.32 The Guardian’s article pages have a tabbed content area in the right sidebar below the ad, however it is below the fold, as is the tabbed content on the home page. In contrast to The Guardian’s website, TimesOnline.co.uk uses tabbed content at the top of the home page and article pages in the right sidebar. The ‘Editor’s Choice’ box at the top of the third column in The Independent’s homepage offers viewers control of what links they would like to access and below it they offer a list of headline links while further down in that same column below the fold there is also a choice of tabbed content. 32
‘Newspaper Website Design: Trends And Examples’ By Steven Snell http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/11/11/newspaper-website-design-trends-and-examples/ 15 October 2009 22:50 23 of 52
One thing that has not yet been addressed while analysing the websites above is their ‘accessibility’ design. Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web and W3C Director described this as “the power of the Web is in its universality”, defining it as “access by everyone regardless of disability.”33 His vision was one World Wide Web for all, despite any disability.
Two interesting studies were undertaken in recent years to determine how accessible Britain’s online newspapers are for disabled and visually impaired visitors. The first was by Martin Belham, who now works as Information Architect in The Guardian's web development team, but at the time of the study was working as a freelance internet consultant, information architect and writer. He examined the accessibility credentials of nine of Britain's leading online newspapers. He looked at how they performed at basic accessibility tasks like re-sizing the text in a browser, rendering the page without images or JavaScript, and how a screen-reader emulator called FANGS coped with their pages. He developed a scoring system with 19.5 points the maximum points achievable and developed the following ranking table: 34 35
33
‘Accessibility’ W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) http://www.w3.org/standards/webdesign/accessibility 16 October 2009 16:50 34 ‘How accessible are Britain's online newspapers?’ Martin Belam Published 20 November, 2007 http://www.currybet.net/cbet_blog/2007/11/newspaper_accessibility.php 15 Oct 2009 00:00 35 Newspapers were marked out of a total of 19.5 points for their websites’ accessibility – 6 points in total were available for the availability of text resizing and its application, 4 points for browsing the sites without being able to see the images so testing the ‘alt image’ tags, 4 points for sufficient browsing of the websites with JavaScript switched off as many assistive technologies struggle with functionality that relies on JavaScript, 3 points for HTML navigation aids, and 2.5 points for the test’s screenreader simulation. http://www.currybet.net/cbet_blog/2007/11/methodology.php 28 Jan 2010 00:00 24 of 52
1.
The Times
16
points
2.
The Guardian
15.5
points
3.
Daily Mirror
13
points
4.
Daily Mail
11.5
points
5.
The Telegraph
10
points
6.
The Independent
9
points
7=
Daily Star
8
points
7=
The Sun
8
points
9.
Daily Express
7
points
Overall his conclusion was that “only a couple of newspapers are taking seriously any obligation to make their services accessible” and that, “website accessibility testing is very low on the priority list for most newspapers.”36
In another study later that same month, journalism.co.uk undertook a more extensive study called ‘Accessibility 2.0: How accessible are UK newspaper websites?’ on eight of the newspaper websites listed above (with the only exclusion being the Daily Star). To conduct the study, journalism.co.uk enlisted the help of retired research worker John Allnutt, whose bilateral retina blastoma rendered him blind for most of his life. They then asked a firm of website accessibility specialists to give an expert comment on their findings. Richard Warren is technical manager with Userite Website Auditing, his opinion on the findings were as follows:
“None of the eight newspapers reviewed have grasped the fundamental difference between the internet and the print media. All have tried to replicate the look of their printed version and just added a confusing set of
36
‘How accessible are Britain's online newspapers?’ Martin Belam Published 20 November, 2007 http://www.currybet.net/cbet_blog/2007/11/newspaper_accessibility.php 15 Oct 2009 00:05 25 of 52
navigation menus. The result is a collection of cluttered pages that are not very user-friendly and make little, or no, concession to disabled users.”37
The only newspapers he mentioned in a positive light at all were The Guardian and the Daily Mail for having statements that they were attempting to meet accessibility guidelines, “which at least shows that they have given the issue some thought”38. He also credits those two papers along with The Mirror for having a ‘skip links option’ for visually impaired users. This lets these users skip irrelevant and confusing links to get straight to the main content. He finishes by saying “The newspapers tested could easily apply the W3C Accessibility Guidelines (WAIG) to their existing content, make better use of their style sheets so that important content is coded near the top of the page and use the HTML codes for headings and lists in a proper manner.”39
Just when the newspapers thought they had developed well-managed content-rich news websites, a whole new set of challenges is presented to them. Publishing news online is so much more than just replicating stories from print editions on the web. New audiences, on a global scale, now have to be catered for. Newsrooms must embrace all the opportunities and challenges that come with the new technology. The Guardian responded to this in early 2008 by providing a ‘digital awareness programme’ for its 800 staff journalists ahead of the publisher’s move to a new 24/7 integrated newsroom that autumn. It hoped it would be the first step to familiarize staff with video and audio equipment, and discuss the principles of web publishing.40
37
‘None of the papers have grasped the fundamental difference between the internet and print' Richard Warren Published 30 November 2007 http://www.journalism.co.uk/6/articles/530811.php 15 Oct 2009 00:15 38 ibid 39 ibid 40 ‘Guardian extends digital training to all staff’ by Paul McNally, Brand Republic 28 Mar 08 http://www.brandrepublic.com/Discipline/Media/News/796417/Guardian-extends-digital-training-staff/ 16 October 2009 23:10 26 of 52
The same publisher has taken it one step further it seems, embracing the idea of the “citizen reporter” as they are currently looking to hire local bloggers for a hyperlocal effort that will launch in 2010. The advert on paidcontent.co.uk states:
“The successful candidate will be a confident blogger, know their yelps from their tweets, have a passion for local news and understand how to build relationships with the local community. A journalism qualification is desirable but not essential. Working from your home, or anywhere with WiFi, as a ‘beatblogger’ you will lead the Guardian’s innovative approach to community news coverage in Leeds.”41
Perhaps The Guardian’s all embracing approach and forward thinking is the reason its website was voted ‘Newspaper Website of the Year’ for the last two years at the British Press Awards. The judges praised Guardian.co.uk for its use of multimedia, particularly during its coverage of the Beijing Olympics and the US presidential elections. "It remains the big daddy of newspaper websites," the judges said. "Others are getting better but it remains the best."42
Fig. 2.5 shows the monthly statistics from June 2009 of the UK national press web traffic with The Guardian’s website topped only by the ‘Mail Online’.
41
‘UK’s Guardian Newspaper is Going Hyperlocal’ 12 October 2009 http://www.hyperlocalblogger.com/uks-guardiannewspaper-is-going-hyperlocal/ 15 Oct 2009 00:35 42 ‘Guardian scoops four awards including website of the year’ Stephen Brook and Oliver Luft, The Guardian, 1 April 2009 http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/apr/01/british-press-awards-2009 15 Oct 2009 00:15 ‘British Press Awards 2008’ http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=40813 14 October 2009 23:55’ 27 of 52
Fig. 2.5 UK national press web traffic June 2009 (Source: ABCe)
Mail Online leapfrogged Guardian.co.uk and Telegraph.co.uk to become the most visited national newspaper website in June. The website network of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday recorded 29,373,379 unique users that month – at the time the second highest ever monthly figure for a UK newspaper website, behind only Guardian.co.uk which posted just under half-a-million more in January. Guardian.co.uk still increased its traffic by recording 28,966,942 unique users in June. Times Online, which includes content from the Sunday Times, held its fifth position as it drew 21,216,767 unique users. Independent.co.uk drew up the rear as it was the only site to see traffic fall that month, dropping 2.31% to 9,352,369 unique users.43 It was revealed earlier in this paper that The Guardian has since broken all records for monthly unique users passing the 35 million mark in November 2009.
43
‘ABCe: Mail Online top with 29m readers, full UK national newspaper web traffic round-up’ by Oliver Luft 23 July 2009 http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=44023 15 Oct 2009 13:20 28 of 52
This chapter began with that famous quote by A.J. Liebling that “people everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news”.44 I’m sure the well known journalist, were he around today, would insist we are still confusing what we read with news, whether it is reading from a newspaper or from a website. And it is not just the print media, there is the broadcast media too as we listen to news on the radio or see it on television. There also exists solely internet-based media where news blogs online compete with the newspapers and broadcast media for our news delivery. We must remember however that each of these different methods of news delivery is just the medium that we choose to subscribe to. We hear the news through the views (and often bias) of the news media. Whether it is in print in front of us, or on our computer or TV screens, all of it is news being retold through somebody else’s perception.
Marshall McLuhan – the influential philosopher, scholar, literary critic and communication theorist – introduced the argument that “the medium is the message”. McLuhan wrote much on the effects of our technological environment as it related to popular culture, and how this in turn affected human beings and their relations with one another in communities. McLuhan's approach reverses the traditional dominance of content over medium, making content the subordinate. In a candid interview with Playboy Magazine in March 1969, McLuhan made this point: “The content or message of any particular medium has about as much importance as the stenciling on the casing of an atomic bomb.”45 He described how most people see the world through what he called the “rearview-mirror view”46, meaning that, during the period of innovation, the current environment is invisible to us as it overwhelms us, and it
44 45 46
Brighton, Paul & Foy, Dennis News Values, (SAGE Publications, 2007) page2 McLuhan, Eric & Zingrone, Frank, Essential McLuhan (Routledge, 1997) p238 ibid 29 of 52
only becomes fully visible when a new environment has superseded it.47 We can only ever fully understand the consequences of the change or shift in technological communications when the next technological environment has replaced it. Perhaps we are so absorbed in the technology that we live by that we cannot sufficiently read its full impact, and it will only be in years to come that we can look back and see the considerable consequences it had on the newspaper industry.
One thing is for sure, news remains, regardless of technological advances. Whatever fears there are for the future of newspapers – Senator John Kerry in the US used the term “endangered species” when referring to the same topic in May 200948 – they must be addressed by the news titles as they battle for survival. Is it possible some, or all, will exist only on screen in years to come as print editions die out? Only time will tell but this is the route the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has taken when, in March 2009, they halted their print run after 146 years and decided to continue publishing online making it America's largest daily newspaper to shift to an entirely digital news product.49 News organisations must now embrace the role of selling news rather than just newspapers, as The Guardian does, if they want to plan for the possibility of a paperless future.
47
ibid ‘John Kerry: Newspapers “Endangered Species:’ by Andrew Miga 6 May 2009 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/06/john-kerry-newspapers-end_n_197869.html 18 October 2009 20:45 49 ‘Seattle Post-Intelligencer halts print edition’ March 16, 2009 http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/16/news/companies/Seattle_PI/index.htm 03 January 2010 01:15 48
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Chapter 3
The newspaper business has changed dramatically in the last decade and will undoubtedly never be the same again. Many newspapers are attracting more readers to their websites than they could ever hope to read their print editions as they compete online with other traditional news media as well as news blog sites for audience reach. The 24/7 news culture means news stories break online first with people accessing that news within minutes – from their computers or mobile phones – with the help of posts on social networking websites like Facebook or microblogging sites like Twitter.
News organisations may have been caught napping somewhat at the onset of the internet and they did not foresee its entire impact on print media and, many would argue, the inevitable sounding of the death knell for print editions of their newspapers. The majority allowed their content to be freely accessed and are only now rethinking that decision.
Steve Buttry, a former teacher with the American Press Institute who has worked in news organizations since 1971, makes the point on his blog that news organizations need now “to start thinking mobile first.” He feels that news organizations failed at thinking “web-first” and have suffered accordingly, so now it is time to work with the next wave of technology impacting on how people get their news and adapt “a mobile-first strategy”. He mentions the iPhone in particular and says:
the penetration percentage is a great reason to get moving swiftly into iPhone opportunities. If we (news organisations) wait until nearly everyone
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has some sort of smart phone50, someone else will be filling the roles that we can and should fill.51
Mobile users can access online content in two different ways from their iPhones. The first is using a web browser like Safari, just as you would on a computer. Instead of the original websites however, in the case of many news organisations, specific mobile sites are developed to improve the user interface [see Fig. 3.1 for comparison]. This offers faster access to content and avoids forcing mobile visitors to spend a lot of time zooming in and out of very large page sizes, which are designed for much bigger screens. Users are either automatically diverted to the mobile sites when they try to visit the news website (as is the case for The Guardian and The Independent), or they have to visit a different website URL to access the mobile site (such is the case with The Times mobile website).
Fig. 3.1 iPhone screenshots: TimesOnline.co.uk vs. TimesMobile.mobi, 7 December 2009 50
Smartphones are devices that can download applications, as well as the Apple iPhone other smartphones include Blackberry, Nokia and handsets running Google’s new Android platform. 51 ‘News organizations need mobile-first strategy’ Steve Buttry, Published November 20, 2009 http://stevebuttry.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/news-organizations-need-mobile-first-strategy/ 29/11/09 00:05 32 of 52
The second way for mobile users to access content is using a custom designed “app”, (application) which has been downloaded by the user.
In an article for The Guardian in October 2009, communications editor Richard Wray highlighted the fact that amid all the downloadable games and novel fun apps available, some of the apps that are proving particularly popular are those offering the news. “Crucially, in a world where commercial media organisations are desperate to wring a return from the millions of pounds they have poured into digital content, a sizeable chunk of iPhone users are proving willing to pay for news apps” he wrote.52
The Guardian relaunched its mobileoptimised website, m.guardian.co.uk, at the end of February 2009 and this organisation has realised the demand for news by mobile users. In its first traffic figures for the mobile site, two thirds of traffic was said to come from the iPhone or the iPod Touch and the main drivers of traffic were Google, Twitter and user bookmarks.53
Fig. 3.2 [left] iPhone screenshot: m.guardian.co.uk The Guardian’s mobile site, 7 December 2009 52
‘Media organisations turn to mobile phone applications to raise revenue’ Richard Wray, The Guardian p6, Monday 5 October 2009 http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/oct/05/mobile-phone-applications 30/11/09 53 ‘Guardian announces debut traffic figure for mobile site’ Paul McNally, 28 May 2009 http://blogs.pressgazette.co.uk/wire/5135 30/11/09 00:57 33 of 52
Current figures published on the group’s advertising information website54 state that m.guardian.co.uk had 630,176 monthly unique users in August 2009 (45% month-onmonth growth), 6.1 million monthly page impressions in July 2009 (21% month-onmonth growth), with a younger user base than the competition: 61% are 18-34 years old.55
Indeed The Guardian’s website, Guardian.co.uk, regarded as a leader in terms of web innovation and sheer audience size, was lagging behind its national website peers Telegraph.co.uk and Independent.co.uk in the smartphone stakes, a point made by Patrick Smith in an article from September 2009 outlining The Guardian’s plans to finally launch their own iPhone app.
Fig. 3.3 iPhone screenshots: The Independent mobile site vs. The Independent App, 7 Dec 2009
54
Guardian News and Media’s advertising website is at www.adinfo-guardian.co.uk ‘m.guardian.co.uk mobile traffic’ http://www.adinfo-guardian.co.uk/online/mobile/mobile-traffic.shtml 30/11/09 03:00 55
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Confirming that an app was “in the pipeline” Guardian News & Media director of digital content Emily Bell said at the time, “it's still in development, but we are working on an app… although we are likely to charge.” So while the main guardian.co.uk website will remain free (Bell recently reacted strongly in rejecting a pay wall for Guardian.co.uk), its iPhone app itself will be paid-for, unlike several of its rivals.56 The Guardian iPhone app – a sophisticated, customizable application – was finally launched on December 14th 2009 at a once-off price of £2.39 (€2.99) [see Fig. 3.4]. The Times has yet to release an app for the iPhone.
Fig. 3.4 [left] iPhone screenshot: The Guardian’s iPhone App, 4 January 2010
Thus news websites are acknowledging the rise in mobile users and preparing to cater for further surges in the market as smartphones penetrate further and gain even more popularity. What must also be acknowledged is the role of social networking and bookmarking sites and microblogging sites in driving online traffic. Julian Sambles, Head of Audience Development at The Telegraph revealed in May 2009 that Telegraph.co.uk gets 8% of its visitors from social sites. The Telegraph had about 28 million unique visitors in March 2009, which means social
56
‘Guardian developing iPhone app’ Patrick Smith, 30 September 2009 11.48 http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/sep/30/guardian-iphone-app 30/11/09 00:40 35 of 52
sites are sending it almost 75,000 unique visitors a day.57 Sambles told internet content consultant and experienced editor, Malcolm Coles for an article at Fumsi58: All our articles can be found by coming to our site, but relying on this alone will limit the size of our audience. By working on how this content can be distributed and found in the digital world we can – and have – greatly increased the audience that reads our rich content.59
The Telegraph still relies on search engines - they drive a third of its traffic. But, to get traffic from sites like Digg, Facebook, Delicious etc. it has made it easy for users to submit stories there. Sambles continued: We have enabled all our stories to be submitted to these social sites by adding a ‘share this’ button on every article. In each case users can then add their own headline and comments onto the article so enabling their point of view to get across.60
In the same vein, when commenting on the ABCE rankings showing Guardian.co.uk at 31.7m unique users during October 2009, Emily Bell of Guardian News and Media commented: “Our Trafigura story and Charlie Brooker’s column on Jan Moir a few days later highlighted the way stories can grow and propagate through Twitter and Facebook, with steady streams of traffic being driven by these social media channels.”61
The Guardian’s digital content blog, PDA, ran an article using the case study of the very successful US political blogging site Huffington Post, which launched a Social News site with Facebook Connect62 in the middle of August 2009, and, as stated by
57
‘Telegraph.co.uk gets 8% of its traffic from social sites’ Malcolm Coles, 10 May 2009 http://www.malcolmcoles.co.uk/blog/telegraph-trafficsocial-sites/ 30/11/09 04:35 58 FUMSI provides articles and tools for people who Find, Use, Manage and Share Information (FUMSI). http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=1476187 6 December 2009 00:25 59 ‘Find and Share Information on the Internet’ Malcolm Coles, May 2009 http://web.fumsi.com/go/article/share/3907 30/11/09 04:43 60 ibid 61 ‘Guardian remains the UK's most popular newspaper site’ 26 November 2009, Suzanne Bearne http://www.nma.co.uk/guardian-remains-the-uks-most-popular-newspaper-site/3007242.article 30/11/09 16:30 62 Facebook Connect is a tool for web developers and a facility for Facebook users. It makes it easier for Facebook users to take their online identity with them all over the web. They don't have to create separate accounts for every website instead they can 36 of 52
comScore (SCOR) and Nielsen Online, achieved 6,825,000 unique users the following month which grew to 9.47 million unique users in October. According to Huffington Post CEO, Eric Hippeau, Facebook referral traffic is up 48% since the launch and accounted for 3.5 million visits, so 15% of all the comments now come from Facebook. And according to the Huffington Post's internal statistics, those numbers continue to build.63
Along with social networking and bookmarking sites, microblogging is another referral device cited by news organizations, and Twitter in particular is responsible for spreading news online like proverbial wildfire. The Palm Beach Post made this telling statement to open a front-page article that ran with the headline “World hangs on every tweet”:
“Twitter, the online service designed to tell the world - in 140 characters or fewer - how your day is going or your date went last night, has unwittingly become the most trusted name in news in the micro-blogosphere.”64
login using their Facebook login wherever Connect is available. http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=41735647130 07/12/09 20:45 63 ‘Embracing social media boosts traffic on news sites’ 22 October 2009, Mercedes Bunz http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/oct/21/bbc-huffington-post-social-news 30/11/09 04:05 64 ‘From Iran to West Palm Beach, Twitter triggers a news revolution’ Christine Stapleton & Adam Playford, Palm Beach Post, 16 June 2009 http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2009/06/16/a1a_irantwitter_0616.html 30/11/09 04:25 37 of 52
Fig. 3.4 Twitter story on front page of The Palm Beach Post, 15 June 2009
The article from June 2009 continued to describe how the “often-mocked social networking website has provided some of the most riveting real-time coverage of the uprising in Iran” as “Iranian activists circumvented the regime's attempts to block Twitter, flooding the site with their accounts of the day's violence.” It also described how government censors in China shut down Twitter and other social networking websites as part of their attempt to block news about the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. And in January a tourist from Sarasota used Twitter to post an iconic camera-phone photo of passengers huddling on the wing of the US Airways jet that had landed on the Hudson River. Newspapers around the world reprinted the image.65
65
ibid 38 of 52
Most newspapers have embraced Twitter as a means to drive traffic to their digital content and Malcolm Coles outlined the UK response to the microblogging site in a report in July 2009 which had The Guardian an outright leader with the @GuardianTech account.66 Indeed the top 40 listings were dominated by accounts from The Guardian, The Times or the Financial Times, punctuated only by one listing by The Independent’s @TheIndyNews at number 18, one listing by The Daily Mail’s @mailonline at number 20, and six accounts from The Telegraph. When Coles revisited the subject three months later in October, the numbers were up for all [see Fig. 3.5] with @GuardianTech at 1,297,108 followers (up from 831,935). This number continues to grow with a January 2010 figure of 1,552,423.67
Fig. 3.5 UK Newspaper Twitter followers, October 2009
66
‘A guide to newspapers on Twitter’ 7 July 2009, Malcolm Coles http://blogs.journalism.co.uk/editors/2009/07/07/a-guide-to-newspapers-on-twitter/ 30/1/09 16:00 67 ‘@guardiantech’ http://twitter.com/guardiantech 39 of 52
The news can now come from anywhere, and – while traditional news organisations are doing their best to ensure our news delivery is directly from them – thanks to Twitter, it can come from anyone. “It has and will forever change media”, said Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher, of Twitter. "Individuals are becoming consumers and (the) editors of the media”. Kutcher, known to his nearly 3 million Twitter followers as ‘aplusk’, said that it shows that one individual can have the power to reach as many people in a new medium as a media conglomerate.68
This viewpoint may not sit well with the traditional media but perhaps it is the next logical step in dealing with modern media in a postmodernist age. Jean-Francois Lyotard said that in postmodernism one has “incredulity toward metanarratives” and “hostility… to grand narratives”69. In essence, one has given up the idea of a ‘grand narrative’, that universal totalising and comprehensive explanation, in favour of a number of different perspectives. “At the very least, postmodernism highlights the multiplication of voices, questions, and conflicts that has shattered what once seemed to be (although it never really was) the placid unanimity of the great tradition” John McGowan wrote, and it is very fitting of the current position of the news business today.70
Stanley J. Grenz tells us that the postmodern worldview operates with a communitybased understanding of truth, and attests that whatever we accept as truth is dependent on the community in which we participate. “The postmodern worldview affirms that this relativity extends beyond our perceptions of truth to its essence: there is no
68
‘Ashton Kutcher: Twitter will change media’ 24 Jul 2009, Ina Fried http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10295265-56.html 30/11/09 15:30 69 Groden, Michael & Kreiswirth, Martin, The John Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism (The John Hopkins University Press, 1994) ‘Postmodernism’ by John McGowan p586 70 ibid p587 40 of 52
absolute truth; rather, truth is relative to the community in which we participate.”71 This is very true of Western civilization today; awareness of other cultures and belief systems has brought us to a stage of realization that cannot accommodate the notion of an absolute truth, or a ‘grand narrative’ to use Lyotard’s terminology. We accept that truth is dependent on context and we in turn question the context before accepting any truth as reality. We look for many sources of information for verification, and not just one. We consider all viewpoints before accepting one over another.
A provocative article dealing with the position of the news business, which was printed in The Economist on 14th May 2009 entitled ‘Tossed by a gale’, ran with the standfirst: “It isn’t just newspapers: much of the news industry is being blown away. Yet news is thriving.”72 It describes online portals like Yahoo! and Google News as “the Wal-Marts of the news world”73 which collect tens of thousands of stories from every news source and offer headlines to link the reader back to the original news site. The reader is presented with hundreds (or thousands) of stories on the subject and can choose at which news source to read the full article. These aggregators are very cheap to run, making their money by funneling readers past advertisements, and are increasingly being complained about by news folk, being describing as “parasites” that profit from their work. The Economist describes the popular blogging site the Huffington Post as a “boutique aggregator” which boasts an unpaid army of some 3,000 mostly left-wing bloggers. Conversely Arianna Huffington, who runs it, calls it a “community around news”.74
71
Grenz, Stanley James, A Primer on Postmodernism (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 1996) p8 ‘Tossed by a gale’ 14 May 2009 The Economist http://www.economist.com/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=13642689 14/10/09 11:28 73 ibid 74 ibid 41 of 52 72
In less than a decade, the traditional news model has crumbled and along with it, the ‘grand narrative’ or the one all-knowing news source. Our news is assembled and presented, and we can choose to read from a ‘multiplication of voices’, from traditional news organisations or local bloggers, or by following links to either, on posts by our Facebook friends, or tweets on Twitter. Certainly the news business will never be the same again, and we are in a period of much change, which is unsettling many traditional news people. They must bear in mind however, that technology has been deemed a threat in the past to news organisations, and they have adapted accordingly. Newspapers survived, despite the launch of television, and local newspapers survived, despite the launch of local radio, which were both at the times of their arrival meant to signal the end of the news business, as we knew it. In 1955 Marshall McLuhan wrote, “It is the framework which changes with each new technology and not just the picture within the frame.”75 The news business is currently undergoing perhaps its biggest transformation yet.
75
McLuhan, Eric & Zingrone, Frank, Essential McLuhan (Routledge, 1997) p273 42 of 52
Conclusion There are few who would celebrate the demise of a national daily newspaper, but fewer still who would bank on its survival as a print-focused news organisation in the long term. “The newspaper is dead”, Massimo Vignelli told this writer at the Offset design conference in Dublin in November 2009, “this is not the end of journalism; it’s the end of the newspaper – and the sooner the better. It’s a waste of paper, and a waste of everybody’s time… It might not happen in my lifetime – but that is only because [the rest of] my lifetime is very short!”76
The current generations of teenagers and young adults, who cannot remember a time before mobile phones, have been brought up in a technological age far more advanced than any other generation. They socialise online at Bebo and Facebook, play on Xboxes or Playstations or Wiis, they shop online, download ringtones and iPhone apps and new music from iTunes. They do schoolwork on laptops, while Skyping each other for video phonecalls and may even take a book to bed on their Amazon Kindle or the latest technological release from Apple – the iPad. As these teenagers become the working generation, it will be second nature to access technology first when looking for news – it already is their first stop for everything. The older generations that preserve the traditions of years gone by will die out, in one or two generations, and with it the habit of buying a daily newspaper. Environmental concerns will prevail pressurizing publishers to promote digital content over print, and devices for reading online content will continue to get more sophisticated as
76
O’Sullivan, Olivia in conversation with Massimo Vignelli at the Offset design conference, November 7th 2009 18:30, Liberty Hall Theatre, Dublin, Ireland. Massimo Vignelli celebrates his 79th birthday on January 10, 2010. He presented a body of work spanning nearly 60 years at the Offset 2009 conference and is one of the most respected graphic designers alive today. His best known work includes the original design of the New York Subway map which has been imitated the world over for underground transport systems, and the American Airlines brand identity using the Helvetica typeface in a style that is still copied today. 43 of 52
smartphones, digital tablets and more make the online browsing experience ever more enjoyable.
As technology advances, the news media must move with it and adapt as it goes. The choice of media will continue to grow with more and more devices bound to enter the market. Mobile phones are being used to a greater extent as mini computers now as we saw in chapter three, and manufacturers are chomping at the bit to outshine each other with the latest technology, which yet again news organisations will have to allow and design for. The burning question is how, with falling sales and advertising revenue, the news organisations are going to afford to survive? Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and Chief Executive of News Corp. International, “the world’s most famous newspaper man”77, caused a stir in November when he told Sky News Australia's political editor David Speers that he will start charging for content: They shouldn't have had it free all the time. I think we've been asleep and you know it costs us a lot of money to put together good newspapers, good content. And you know they're very happy to pay for it when they buy a newspaper. And I think when they read it elsewhere they're going to have to pay.78
He cited the Wall Street Journal as an example of where only the first paragraph comes up on search engines and is free. Anything after that is subscription-based. He is planning to make newspapers like The Times and Sunday Times chargeable online. The pay model is still up for discussion but he has given assurances that he will erect a pay wall to block aggregators like Google News and Microsoft from searching his news content, or “stealing” it as he chooses to call it. "We'd rather have fewer people coming to our website, but paying," Murdoch said. This coming year will be a telling one for newspapers as the biggest fish in the pond attempts to rectify the mistakes of 77 78
Cooper, Matt ‘The Last Word’ radio show, Today FM November 10th 2009 18:45 Speers, David 'The Interview', Sky News, 7th November, 2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7GkJqRv3BI 44 of 52
the last ten years and reclaim the news business. He has been successfully charging for content at the Wall Street Journal for some time now but this is a very captive market, it will be another task entirely to get consumers to pay for content they have been receiving for free for over a decade. Could Murdoch be preparing for the eventual demise of the print editions of his papers by focusing on re-establishing and charging for his online content? Steve Jobs’ Apple is often credited at having saved the music industry with their iTunes software product that allows users to download music, one song at a time for a minimal fee. It is possible that news organisations will have to look at this pay model as well as a subscription service to successfully charge for their content. Many who will shy away from incurring monthly subscription charges may be willing to pay minimal fees for news stories on demand. Mark Scott, Managing Director at ABC opposes the Murdoch stance and said: It strikes me as a classic play of old empire, of empire in decline. Believing that because you once controlled the world you can continue to do so, because you once set the rules, you can do so again.79
The free versus paid online content debate will rage on and should prove one of the most interesting challenges in the near future for media watchers and critical writers alike to see if Murdoch and the others that are joining him can bring about radical changes in the industry. The resulting outcome will prove a crucial result for newspapers worldwide. Nobody wants to see the old workhorse put out to pasture, but if it can not be prevented, perhaps it is time for a new workhorse to take pride of place in the stable. In the words of Mary Engelbreit: If you don't like something change it; if you can't change it, change the way you think about it.80 79
Scott, Mark (Managing Director, ABC), A.N. Smith Memorial Lecture in Journalism 14th October, 2009 http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s2737703.htm 04/01/10 04:25 80 ‘Mary Engelbreit Famous Quotes’ http://www.quotemountain.com/famous_quote_author/mary_engelbreit_famous_quotations/ 04/01/10 02:40 45 of 52
Bibliography ____________ Aldrich-Ruenzel, Nancy & Fennell, John, Designer’s Guide To Typography (Phaidon, 1991) Baines, Paul & Haslam, Andrew, Type & Typography (Laurence King Publishing, 2005) Berry, John D., Contemporary Newspaper Design (Mark Batty, 2004) Brighton, Paul & Foy, Dennis, News Values (SAGE Publications, 2007) Evans, Harold, Editing and Design Book Five: Newspaper Design (Heinemann, 1973) Grenz, Stanley James, A Primer on Postmodernism (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 1996) Hurlburt, Allen, The Grid (John Wiley & Sons, 1982) Hutt, Allen, The Changing Newspaper (Gordon Fraser, 1973) SND (Society for News Design), The Best of Newspaper Design 27 (Rockport, 2006) Deleuze & Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus (Athlone Press, 1988) Groden, Michael & Kreiswirth, Martin, The John Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism (The John Hopkins University Press, 1994) McLuhan, Eric & Zingrone, Frank, Essential McLuhan (Routledge, 1997) McLuhan, Marshall, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, 1964)
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Journals ____________ American Journalism Review October/November 2006 Creative Review November 2005 Creative Review December 2008 ‘Killer Apps’ Gavin Lucas p28-29 Creative Review December 2009 ‘Year in Review – Social Media’ p40-41 Design Week 08.09.05, 22.09.05, 23.11.06 & 30.11.06 Inpublishing Magazine September/October 2008 Websites ____________ ‘@guardiantech’ http://twitter.com/guardiantech
‘A guide to newspapers on Twitter’ 7 July 2009, Malcolm Coles http://blogs.journalism.co.uk/editors/2009/07/07/a-guide-to-newspapers-on-Twitter/
‘ABCe: Mail Online top with 29m readers, full UK national newspaper web traffic round-up’ by Oliver Luft 23.07.09 http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=44023
‘Accessibility’ W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) http://www.w3.org/standards/webdesign/accessibility
‘Ashton Kutcher: Twitter will change media’ 24 July 2009, Ina Fried http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10295265-56.html
‘British Press Awards 2009’ http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=43456
‘Circulations of all quality papers fall in November’ by Oliver Luft, 11 December 2009 http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=44781&c=1 ‘Downsizing: how newspapers got smaller’ by Chris Tryhorn 12.09.05 http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2005/sep/12/pressandpublishing.newspaperformats1
‘Embracing social media boosts traffic on news sites’ 22 October 2009, Mercedes Bunz http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/oct/21/bbc-huffington-post-social-news ‘Facebook across the web’ 4 December 2008, Mark Zuckerberg http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=41735647130
‘Find and Share Information on the Internet’ Malcolm Coles, May 2009 http://web.fumsi.com/go/article/share/3907
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‘From Iran to West Palm Beach, Twitter triggers a news revolution’ http://www.palmbeachpost.com/search/content/local_news/epaper/2009/06/16/a1a_irantwitter_0616.html
Christine Stapleton & Adam Playford, Palm Beach Post, 16 June 2009 http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2009/06/16/a1a_iranTwitter_0616.html
‘Guardian announces debut traffic figure for mobile site’ Paul McNally, 28 May 2009 http://blogs.pressgazette.co.uk/wire/5135
‘Guardian developing iPhone app’ Patrick Smith, 30 September 2009 http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/sep/30/guardian-iphone-app
‘Guardian extends digital training to all staff’ by Paul McNally, Brand Republic 28.03.08 http://www.brandrepublic.com/Discipline/Media/News/796417/Guardian-extends-digital-trainingstaff/
‘Guardian remains the UK's most popular newspaper site’ 26 November 2009, Suzanne Bearne http://www.nma.co.uk/guardian-remains-the-uks-most-popular-newspapersite/3007242.article
‘Guardian sets new web record with 35m’ by Dominic Ponsford, 22 December 2009 http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=44819&c=1 03 Jan 2010 18:55
‘John Kerry: Newspapers “Endangered Species:’ by Andrew Miga 06.05.09 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/06/john-kerry-newspapers-end_n_197869.html
‘m.guardian.co.uk mobile traffic’ http://www.adinfo-guardian.co.uk/online/mobile/mobile-traffic.shtml
‘March ABCs: Daily Star continues to shine bright’ by Owen Amos 09.04.09 http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=43508&c=1
‘Mary Engelbreit Famous Quotes’ http://www.quotemountain.com/famous_quote_author/mary_engelbreit_famous_quotations/
‘Media organisations turn to mobile phone applications to raise revenue’ Richard Wray, The Guardian, 5 October 2009 http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/oct/05/mobile-phone-applications
‘Mirror drops 10 per cent in face of cut price Sun and Star’ by Dominic Ponsford, 11 December 2009 http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=44780&c=1 03 ‘Mobile Content Bits: Guardian iPhone App Pricing’ Patrick Smith, 6 November 2009 http://moconews.net/article/419-mobile-content-bits-guardian-iphone-app-pricing-spotify-launches-on-3-t/ ‘News organizations need mobile-first strategy’ Steve Buttry, 20 November 2009 http://stevebuttry.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/news-organizations-need-mobile-first-strategy/
‘Newspaper Website Design: Trends and Examples’ by Steven Snell 11.11.08 http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/11/11/newspaper-website-design-trends-and-examples
‘Online advertising terminology’ http://www.webhostingtalk.com/wiki/Online_advertising_terminology#Above_the_fold
Seattle Post-Intelligencer halts print edition’ March 16, 2009 http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/16/news/companies/Seattle_PI/index.htm 48 of 52
Scott, Mark (Managing Director, ABC), A.N. Smith Memorial Lecture in Journalism 14th October, 2009 http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s2737703.htm 04/01/10 04:25 ‘Telegraph.co.uk gets 8% of its traffic from social sites’ Malcolm Coles, 10 May 2009 http://www.malcolmcoles.co.uk/blog/telegraph-trafficsocial-sites/ ‘Tossed by a gale’ 14 May 2009 http://www.economist.com/node/13642689/comments
‘The Guardian’s New European Look’ by Rick Poynor 19.09.05 http://www.designobserver.com/archives/entry.html?id=6343
‘The Independent: Kelner says it's time to rethink 'viewspaper' front pages’ by Stephen Brook 05.06.08 http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jun/05/theindependent.pressandpublishing
‘The Times a-changing for worse with dismal design’ 04.06.08 by Roy Greenslade [published in The London Evening Standard, 4 June 2008] http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-business/article-23490103-details/The+Times+achanging+for+worse+with+dismal+redesign/article.do
‘The Times is all colour, but the future is grey’ 08.06.08 by Peter Preston [published in The Observer, Sunday 8 June 2008] http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jun/08/thetimes.pressandpublishing
‘The Times redesign: And the reason for this was?’ 13.06.08 by Alan Geere http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=6&storycode=41399&c=1
‘Typography is a grid’ by Anthony Froshaug http://www.hyphenpress.co.uk/journal/2000/08/21/typography_is_a_grid
‘UK’s Guardian Newspaper is Going Hyperlocal’ 12.10.09 http://www.hyperlocalblogger.com/uks-guardian-newspaper-is-going-hyperlocal/
‘What's AdSense?’ http://www.google.com/services/adsense_tour/index.html
‘Why the new Berliner gives me the blues’ 19.09.05 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/why-the-new-berliner-gives-me-the-blues-507459.html
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Interviews ____________ •
‘The Last Word’ radio show on Today FM with Matt Cooper, November 10th 2009 6.45pm joined by Steven Price, media columnist in the Irish edition of the Sunday Times (not speaking as a spokesman for News International) and John Kennedy, editor of siliconrepublic.com.
•
This writer in conversation with iconic designer Massimo Vignelli (whose 1971 grid design for the The New York Herald newspaper is referenced in Chapter 1), at the Offset design conference, November 7th 2009 6.30pm, Liberty Hall Theatre, Dublin, Ireland. OOS: Where do you think the newspaper is going now, as a format? MV: I think they are going to go out of business (laughs). They are totally useless, just wastepaper, they are just a device to sell advertising, to make a profit. They mean nothing. OOS: Do you think we should mourn the loss of them? MV: This is not the end of journalism; it’s the end of the newspaper – and the sooner the better. It’s a waste of paper, and a waste of everyone’s time. OOS: And all the work that was done on the grids, what happens to that, the history books? Well, I suppose that’s incorporated online… MV: Yes we use the grids also on the internet, well a different kind of grid, but there is a structure, it might be vertical instead of across, it depends on the format… The typographical discipline is not dead – the newspaper is dead. It might not happen in my lifetime – but that is only because [the rest of] my lifetime is very short (laughs).
•
‘Google vs. Murdoch’ On Point with Tom Ashbrook Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 10:00 AM http://www.onpointradio.org/2009/11/google-vs-murdoch
•
'The Interview', Rupert Murdoch with David Speers, Sky News, 7th November, 2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7GkJqRv3BI
Lectures ____________ ‘Old Growth Media And The Future Of News’ by Steven Johnson at the South By Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin 13th March 2009. http://sxsw.com/node/1408
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Image sources: ____________ 1.1
Le Corbusier’s ‘Modulor’ design system http://www.mi.sanu.ac.yu/vismath/jadrbookhtml/920.jpg
1.2
The Herald newspaper, based on a grid design by Massimo Vignelli http://www.flickr.com/photos/tal_ent/3097124186/
1.3
The original masthead of The Guardian http://www.bothsidesnow.co.uk/xrrf/guardian210605.jpg
The new design of The Guardian http://www.newsdesigner.com/blog/images/sept05/newguard.jpg
1.4
The Guardian G2 supplement http://guardian.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
1.5
The new design of The Times http://www.visualeditors.com/jackson/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/page1.jpg
1.6
The Times Times2 supplement http://www.visualeditors.com/jackson/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/times2page1.jpg
1.7
UK national newspaper circulation graph http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45593000/gif/_45593096_newspaper_totals_466.gif
2.1
The Guardian, The Times & The Independent websites [see Fig. 1.1, 1.2, 1.5]
2.2
The Guardian home page 15th October 2009 http://www.guardian.co.uk/
The Guardian article page 15th October 2009 http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/oct/16/schools-report-critical-of-labour
2.3
The Times Online home page 15th October 2009 http://www.Timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/
The Times Online article page 15th October 2009 http://www.Timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6877164.ece
2.4
The Independent home page 15th October 2009 http://www.independent.co.uk/
The Independent article page 15th October 2009 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/generation-of-pupils-beingput-off-school-report-says-1803629.html
2.5
UK national press web traffic June 2009 (Source: ABCe) http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=44023&c=1
3.1
iPhone screenshots: TimesOnline.co.uk vs. TimesMobile.mobi, 7 December 2009 (taken by the author)
3.2
iPhone screenshot: m.guardian.co.uk The Guardian’s mobile site, 7 December 2009 (taken by the author)
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3.3
iPhone screenshots: The Independent mobile site vs. The Independent App, 7 December 2009 (taken by the author)
3.4
World hangs on every tweet - front page headline, Palm Beach Post 16 June 2009 http://www.blog.julians.name/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/Twitter-iran-world-hangs-on-everytweet.jpg
3.5
National newspaper's Twitter accounts - followers, following and updates http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=rsG2iYihGJbQg19abKMen5w&single=true&gid=0&output=ht ml
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