I don't write much about print on here, but long-time readers will know I'm not a "print is dead" type. I do believe that print will have to change and evolve to deal with the changing environment - much as theatre had to after the coming of cinema and then television - but that it will survive. And I'm glad about that, because I love magazines as objects, especially when they're designed to really showcase the visual impact good print titles can create.
Yesterday, I had a day that caused me to think much more about design than I normally do. It started the moment I walked through the doors of Quadrant House, RBI's Sutton main office. There's a big wall of our magazines in reception there, and the above cover, of Hairdressers Journal, really leapt out at me from that wall. It has a level of design aspiration above that of most of our titles, with a few honourable exceptions - New Scientist for a start - and some meetings later in the day reminded me how lacking traditional publishers can be in design aspiration online. Again, I think HJi, the online version of Hairdressers Journal, leads the way in our company.
Is it me, or is the issue of design, of user-experience of our website almost entriely absent from the future of journalism debate? And, if so, why the hell is that?
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There is all the buzz around Portugeese daily newsmagazine i (launched last May I believe), design is def. part of what makes it both attractive and different from other print dailies. However, here the design is matched by a very different focus and different content. We've also seen several newspapers become smaller, but that's more of an economical issue than anything else;-)
That's just what springs to mind here and now... Oh, and Danish freesheet Urban relaunched (last year or the year before) with a "human focus": all stories should have people in them (what in US journalism is called RPs, real people, as opposed to BBs, babbling bureaucrats), and be accompanied by photos of people and not inanimate objects like buildings. Intreresting one, don't think the remake had much of an impact;-)
Design and usability/engagement are areas where publishers fall down. If you carry out ongoing user testing you will know what works for your site.
That's the basic stuff - then we get on to the ambition. I'd like to see publishers trying out new ways to visualise their content. The comeback on that has been not having the right skills. I'd recommend commissioning and writing less and using the savings to do something exciting with design. Less is definitely more and publishers need to hone their sites - the legacy (for many) is sprawling sites with complex navigation and that is a difficult place to start when you want to start making things look good and become more engaging.
Could I immodestly point you in the direction of this
http://martincloake.wordpress.com/2010/01/12/its-time-for-design-2-0/
It links through to Adam Westbrook's original post, which is well worth a read.
From my own experience, I echo your perception that the issue of design is not front and centre in the future of journalism debate. It's a good question why this is so.
My initial response would be to say that there is too much focus on the basics in the debate. What will it take for producers to survive? Isn't it awful / remarkable that there are a host of non-professionals entering previously closed spaces? How can producers continue to make money from publishing content?
It's not that the issue of how things look does not have any bearing on this - rather that it is probably seen as beyond basic. It is possibly seen as an add-on, a luxury: not inherent to the raw product.
Of course, the touch and feel of a product has a very great value to consumers. This is self-evidently known to producers. Publications are widely varied in their shapes, sizes and colour (to name but a few aspects). You can't confuse the Berliner format of The Guardian for the salmon pink broadsheet pages of the Financial Times - or either of these with how Heat magazine appears.
The debate is not at all attentive enough to the question of audience taste. Personally, I love the design of my favourite print magazines, and hardly ever visit their websites. Whether producers can persuade me to go online, cut their print costs and make money from me in a new way is not my concern.