Why the designer holds the key to the future of journalism
Editor’s Note: Today’s guest writer is Adam Westbrook, a multimedia journalist based in London. You can read more from Adam on his blog, adamwestbrook.wordpress.com, and follow him on Twitter at @AdamWestbrook.
By Adam Westbrook
Why doesn’t the average consumer pay for news online? We know all the obvious answers: the fact news is free elsewhere; the fact journalists don’t ‘own’ information anymore; and the fact we’re just not prepared to get our credit cards out for micropayments just yet.
But over the last few months I’ve come to a different conclusion: I don’t think we’re happy to pay for news on websites … because it doesn’t look very good.
Think about it: no matter what the story, subject, country, language or website a news story on a web page follows a visual formula. Usually a thin (400-700 pixel wide) central column with two or three thinner columns either side; a headline in big bold letters; the rest of the text in size 10 or 12; the odd sub heading if you’re lucky; and video or photographs squeezed inside the narrow column.
It’s almost always black text on a white background, the images are no more than 200×200 pixels.
When you think about it, it’s quite amazing that after more than five years of web 2.0, when the power of the webpage has grown dramatically,that news organisations are piping out web stories as if it was 1999.
The standard 3-column layout on the CNN and BBC News websites.
One thing then is becoming clear: if people are going to pay for journalistic content in a digital form, it’s going to have to look good, not just read good.
We’re already starting to see technical innovation (and the fruits of this innovation) in magazines.
Think about why people buy magazines: the content, sure; but magazines are about a little bit more. They’re often a lifestyle choice, something to have on the coffee table – and something that looks good. It’s why magazines spend money on designers and graphics teams. It pays off.
Take the German magazine WELT am SONNTAG. In November they showed off a new digital edition, and its focus is on good design as well as good content:
Every page is designed individually for the story. It’s packed with high quality photographs, innovative interactive layouts and great data visualisation. Think for a second what value this adds to your consumption of the story.
The reader can explore pages as they choose and have a real interactive experience. Why can’t newspapers and other mainstream media harness this?
In December a British design agency unveiled its ideas for a new magazine e-reader.
Called Mag+ it resembles Amazon’s Kindle and Apple’s feted tablet, but is designed with the magazine reader in mind.
“The concept aims to capture the essence of magazine reading which people have been enjoying for decades: an engaging and unique reader experience in which high quality writing and stunning imagery build up immersive stories” they explain.
Could this technology help newspapers too? I think so.
We’re seeing innovative design invade the blogosphere too, with the rise of what are already being coined “Blogazines”. Web designers with the time, talent and determination are showing the potential of individually designed blog entries. Take for example British designer Gregory Wood’s unique homepage and the website of Dustin Curtis. They treat every blog post as a new creative challenge.
And it looks great.
There are downsides, of course. It’s a far more time consuming way of telling stories, and at a time when journalists are being laid off, hiring designers with macs and square glasses won’t go down very well. And it isn’t the way forward for all news publications. We still want the facts, fast, in black and white.
So what tools can publications harness to inject life into their articles?
The ones with money will want to hire in specialist designers probably, ones with the know-how of Illustrator, After Effects and Photoshop.
There is, however, nothing to stop the enterprising journalist learning these for him or herself (think how much more employable you would become!)
Others are outsourcing to specialist companies. For example US platform Flyp Media has been commissioned to produce some pretty impressive pieces, among them The Scientific American’s ‘Powering a Green Planet’.
On their website Flyp don’t shy away from their ambitious aims:
“FLYP is a dynamic online, multimedia magazine that combines text, video, audio, animation and interactivity into a new kind of storytelling.”
And a new kind of storytelling is what is at stake here. Because making your website look pretty isn’t just style over substance. It opens up a new landscape of narrative and storytelling to the journalist. It adds untold value to your content.
And perhaps, just perhaps that’s enough to get them to open their wallets again.
I like where you are getting at with this article and I too would like to see a wave of informative web experiences put together with a real user experience in mind, rather than just spitting out a story or content.
However I don’t think that kind of mentality will ever hit mainstream news. I do feel it is a possible alternative to the traditional magazine industry.
The reason why I don’t think it will ever hit the mainstream news is that that kind of attention and detail costs time and money. A lot of time and money. Reporters are cranking out stories constantly. Too fast for a good experience like that to be created. Putting that much work into daily news stories is overkill. It’s why newspapers are as simple as they are. Magazines however are a different story.
Magazines are inherently visual because they have the time to go in depth on the information as well as the experience. They can worry about textures, colors, visuals, etc. That kind of experience you can transform into a digital experience quite well and yes I do agree with you, people will pay for a good digital informative experience.
I for one am excited for the shift. I do not think we are coming close to the visual and informative potential that we have right now and I’d like to see that potential better used. Very interesting post you have, we’ll see what the future brings.
What you are describing is one of the differences between newspapers and magazines. I’d argue that every news story doesn’t need an expanded multimedia-scape — just like every story in a newspaper doesn’t belong in a magazine — although the multimedia package certainly works for “big” stories (loosely defined).
However, the implication that form is more important than content is flawed, in my opinion, and I’ve not seen any research data that bears it out. Plus, far too many “pretty” websites are absolutely not usable (ie, too often designers privilege eye candy over functionality).
No question there are great ideas here but I don’t think this is about website design and they don’t make for the best examples.
I agree with the your point and the other comments, that this is more the domain of magazine-style content. I wonder if there is much of a place for this in online journalism though. With so much information to process, don’t we need to get it in the fastest, most consumable form possible?
How many people actually read any kind of long-from writing online? (in front of a computer).
In the end, I think you are right. But what’s missing is an emphasis that the future of being online isn’t being on a computer, it’s being on a Kindle-like device and at that point design will matter more and will definitely be a factor in people’s willingness to pay for it. In fact people are already willing to pay for content on a Kindle when it is free online.
It seems we were writing on similar subjects at roughly the same time yesterday, Adam. http://bit.ly/8RNqhW
Design hasn’t moved on in the same way other aspects of the trade have online, and this is a constant source of frustration to many. I’m also not convinced that people won’t read long form work online – design plays a role here too, as I argue at the link above. In fact, I’m just working up another post on that very subject.
Its a sad reality that a story or a business can be successful if the design is not. If the content is good and people want/need it they will buy into it.
But there is no doubt that if you have great content and this great content gets interpreted in a visually appealing way you will have an even more successful piece in the end.
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Thanks and Regards
Noel for Nopun.com
a professional graphic design studio
Agreed, design will hopefully come into its own, quite often journalists fall back on Wordpress.
The most interesting part of Mag+ video (shoved on my Tumblr site) for me was a deconstruction of how magazine design works, some journalists might be able to replicate elements of this.
Or maybe a Wordpress template can be developed which considers a visual element and a more layered magazine type structure?
Thanks for the ideas, Adam! There’s always a trade-off in communication design between aesthetic principles, technology and commercial pressures – this is even more apparent on the web, where designer are still wrestling with control of “look and feel” from the underlying technology. The best designed website, magazine, newspaper etc can still fail commercially – success is about maintaining the fine balance between dazzling design, connecting with users and mastering the technology.