IFRA

Ron Reason is a designer, consultant and educator based in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.

newspaper techniques: How has newspaper design evolved in the past few years and how much do you expect it to change in the next 2 or 3 years? Do you expect the changes in the near future to be radical ones or more a matter of fine-tuning of what's being done today?

Ron Reason: In the last few years, the waiting period between redesigns has condensed dramatically.

It used to be every 10 years (more or less). Then it seemed to become every 5. Now, some newspapers, even big titles, are willing to redesign every 1-2 years. (Chicago Sun-Times being one that just recently retooled, junking a nice redesign about 3 years ago.)

This is caused by increased desperation by publishers to reach eroding markets; increased tolerance by readers who are now used to designs that change yearly, monthly, maybe even weekly on the web; and of course, the need to adjust for smaller page sizes, a trend that continues.

Within the next 3-5 years, I would not be surprised to see the formatting and templating of newspapers to take off; i.e. increased standardization of layouts to reduce costs of design and editing staff.

Newspaper designers and art directors won't want to hear that, but I think it's coming. I never felt strongly that designs had to radically vary from market to market, to reflect local tastes in typography or color palette, for example.

The global standardisation of blog design, for example, show that readers go for content, not ‘new’ fonts or dramatic color palettes; readers online have proven that design variations don't have the importance that many print traditionalists have long suggested.

nt: You have worked on redesigns outside of the U.S. as well as spoken at journalism institutes in several countries. Do the basic principles for good newspaper design apply everywhere, or are there some major differences depending on the country and culture?

R. Reason: Of course some alphabets are different, and some cultures read from right to left. But every culture I have visited has shown a voracious appetite for all things visual and graphical in recent years.

Gulf News of Dubai, U.A.E ., whose redesign I assisted with several years ago, went from 0 to 60 in the area of art direction and graphics and a dramatically improved newspaper has been the result.

nt: What key points should newspapers keep in mind when undertaking a re-design?

R. Reason: You may wish to review this entry on my website (Editor’s note: Please see our ‘links’ section.)

In addition to this, I'd add: newspapers must keep in mind the dramatic competition for reader attention, first and foremost. Keep the design clean and orderly.

Navigation must be lightning fast and readability must be pure.

Staffs worldwide have lots of work to do to move away from the long-form, inverted pyramid narrative style of storytelling and get better at layering, segmenting, ‘chunking up’ of text – nontraditional story formats.

nt: What advice do you have for the average newspaper designer who wants to become a better one? (And here I mean the in-house staffers who lay out the newspaper night after night).

R. Reason: Stick to the rules of your newspaper, the style guide, if there is one.

If there isn't one, ask what the standards are to which you should be held. Perhaps volunteer to help create it, clear up any inconsistencies or misunderstandings of how the newspaper is to be put together.

Focus on clear page layouts, dramatic selection and sizing of photos (recently reaffirmed by the new Poynter Eye-Trac results as something readers are drawn to), and the creation of glance boxes and infographics, even simple ones.

Have an open, honest critique session, perhaps over lunch or dinner once a week or at least once a month, so pages can be reviewed. A supervisor should attend and offer up the best examples as well as what is not working, and explain why.

In lieu of this, find a mentor, either inside the newsroom or at another newspaper, who will offer this periodic review of your work. Honest feedback, wherever you get it, is really the only way to get better.

nt: You spent five years as Director of Visual Journalism at Poynter, and they have recently released the findings of the EyeTrack07 study, their first major study of this kind in 16 years regarding print newspapers. How much influence on newspaper design do you expect their findings to have?

R. Reason: I think the biggest change may end up being an increased adoption of alternate, easy-to-read story forms.

Short summaries with pullouts, magazine-style, that serve various audiences quickly.

The new research proves that readers respond to this kind of information, and retain knowledge more readily than from traditional, long-form storytelling.

nt: Are such findings – based on a study of newspaper readers in one country – useful to newspapers in other countries as well?

R. Reason: They will be useful to editors of English-language newspapers around the world.