iSalon: The future of print layout

Orlando Sentinel unveiled a radical design overhaul today for their print newspaper (sample below), which brought up the discussion of a possible redesign of The Spokesman-Review, to prevent the dreaded concept of “get a cardboard sign, stand by the freeway, ‘Will report for food.’”

Does the print edition of S-R need to be redesigned? Yes, say some staffers at this week’s iSalon meeting.

Redesign is a floating bouncing idea at this point. Some goals - to make news quicker, easier to read, more accessible with more variety. Here are some of the discussion points, hairy on both ends:

» How does redesign change a newsroom? Using interesting layout formats requires switching your staff to a different reporting strategy and workflow, assistant managing editor Carla Savalli said. Reporters and editors may do stories in differently sized chunks. They won’t group their gathered information in the usual way. The pace of the day will be different. But it’ll come down to not having enough staff, to have a layout-intensive design like the Sentinel, reporter Kevin Graman said. And news from wire services is still a straight hit from the water hose - To reorganize information from the newswire, it needs to be digested by human editors at the usual rate.

» What about commentary, analysis , and other meaningful material that can be better conveyed without bullet-lists and flashy colors? asks online producer Andrew Zahler who used to be a night copydesk wizard. Some qualities are special to the print newspaper: The newspaper industry can’t rely on breaking news to sell papers anymore, said deputy city editor David Wasson, noting that many newspapers in the business still do - even though breaking news is a thing of the Web, while print provides meaningful reporting and analysis.

» Who will be pleased? For the regulars who know exactly where to find everything every day, a redesign will probably be rough, reporter Jim Camden said. The newspaper always loses subscribers with a redesign, said photo editor Larry Reisnouer who has worked with the company since 1968. But interesting-looking pages can also boost single-copy newsstand sales, when appealing pages ‘pop’ and attract readers to the newspaper vending machine. Here’s a post from BrassTacksDesign about selling more .

» More discussion questions : What if a redesign is taken transitionally, experimentally, with inserts? What if we take a survey or work with focus groups? (opinion page editor Doug Floyd) What if the industry and the readership change by the time you’re done with your research? (reporter Alison Boggs) Can you lose your print readers by trying to appeal to young webby readers? (Camden: Yes) Could, or should, a print newspaper want to be a print version of its Web product or should it strive for a different standard? (How do we make more money? Who killed JFK? What is the meaning of life?)

We also mentioned the From Newsdesigner.com, the Bakersfield Californian redesign (more information: An overview of their overhaul , Online Journalism Review on Bakersfield overhaul )