Next on Sunday is here.

The Sunday edition of Next saw the light Jan. 4, and the celebrations included a gala affair introducing the new newspaper to the world. It is the newest newspaper of Nigeria, and one of the newest in the African continent.

The daily edition will be in a compact format, but Sunday is big—-a broadsheet, with several sections that include Arts & Culture, Sports, Metro, Book Review and Elan magazine.

We show you examples here, and will continue to report on the development of Next.

Here is how Dele Olojede described the first day introduction of Next on Sunday:

We had a fantastic evening! The launch went flawlessly. Your video received an enthusiastic ovation, and it was followed by my presentation. Advertisers are enthusiastic. Even rival publishers openly admitted that we have shifted the paradigm……The staff were finally able to see a concrete expression of all the work, however inadequate. Some of them cried….“

We know that there is a long learning curve to follow here..  The staff of Next is young, somewhat inexperienced, but eager and enthusiastic.  Everything is new to them, including the producing of a daily newspaper and online edition.  We at Garcia Media have worked hard with the team, and we know that it is a matter of time before Next becomes the one newspaper to watch.  Until then, we continue to work with them, now emphasizing coaching and training.  My Garcia Media team on this project has included Mario Garcia Jr., working with online edition; Ron Reason, training and coaching; Christian Fortanet, art director.

Here is a video I made to be shown during the gala, capturing the spirit of the project in Lagos:

We promise further updates on TheMarioBlog.

From tabloid to broadsheet

One early year surprise, a newspaper in Maryland, The Gazette, has redesigned itself to become a broadsheet.

Here is how the publisher, James Mannarino, describes the experience:

With the cost of newsprint rising 28 percent in recent months, we have searched for a way to continue to reach the more than 1 million readers who count on us every week. We are unable and unwilling to pass much of these costs to our advertisers, other than the 2 percent to 4 percent rate increase scheduled for February 2009. Instead, we asked our friend, national newspaper designer extraordinaire Neal Pattison, to help create a “new” format for The Gazette as we enter our 50th year. It sounds too good to be true, but the new design, which is a “broadsheet” in newspaper terms, allows us to provide advertisements that are slightly larger, the flexibility to provide more stories and photographs and save on newsprint.

For more information:
http://www.gazette.net/stories/12242008/montnew205756_32471.shtml

TheMarioBlog posting #162

In the midst of one of the worst economic downturns in history——and with the newspaper industry severely affected not only by the economy, but also by trends in how media users consume news and information—-we witnessed the start of three new newspapers, with a fourth completed, and ready for launch Jan. 4, 2009 (Next, in Lagos, Nigeria).

The new newspapers are:
The Daily Xpress of Bangkok, Thailand
Saatschi of Hyderabad, India
Saakal Times, Pune, India

Each of these newcomers represents a milestone in its circulation area; In Bangkok, The Daily Xpress became the first free newspaper ever in Thailand, with one important characteristic: it is distributed free by itself, but also inserted as a supplement to the paid newspaper, The Nation, which has become an economics/politics daily.

In Hyderabad, India, the new Saatschi is published in the Telugo regional language, and sells over one million copies daily.

In Pune, India, the Saakal Times becomes the English-language newspaper of the area, while the same media house produces another one of our products, Saakal, in the Marathi language.

2008 and the trends

As we worked through more than 20 different projects during the year, our Garcia Media team and I witnessed the following trends shaping up among our clients:

—Consolidation of content

—-more newspaper editors and publishers worldwide took a good, hard look at how they present information, and considered different ways of merging related content, and, in some instances removing sections and departments no longer viable economically, or as a result of online coverage.  Specifics that come to mind:

*Stock listings—-in some instances, four pages of these numbers were brought down to two.
*Classifieds—this is one area where many newspapers studied the section to eliminate categories, or extend offerings through online.
*Mixing of sections—-it is not unusual these days to combine sports and business, for example.  With proper guidance, readers don’t seem to mind when changes in the “flow of the book” are made.

—Change of page format

—-while European newspapers continue to turn to the compact formats to facilitate use of the newspaper, while saving money, several newspapers in the United States, including The Oklahoman, adopted the narrower 44” web.  More traditionally broadsheet newspapers worldwide also switched to “tabloid” format for supplements inserted in the newspaper.

—More attention to navigation

—-If there was one issue that all newspapers turned their attention to was how to make the reader’s trip through the newspaper easier.  Editors everywhere asked us for the ultimate navigational tools, not only on page one, but also through the entire newspaper.

—Integrating print/online

—-What was basically a matter of choice only two years ago, the idea of fusing print and online operations has become a must. I am happy to say that every one of our clients is keenly interested in establishing the type of newsroom where news is seen as protagonist on a multiplatform stage.

—Storytelling strategies

—-This was a peak year for editors everywhere to rethink how their reporters and editors tell stories. More attention has been paid to creating strategies that allow for better utilization of secondary readings, brief items, photo galleries and info graphics as part of the storytelling process.

—Advertising innovations

—-Perhaps it was the dismal economy that ruled the day in this area, but I had never seen so much experimentation with various advertising sizes and configurations by newspapers everywhere.  From wrap around ads, to island ads, to silent ads, and, of course, page one ads in various sizes, all made a safe landing in 2008. I predict we will see more of this in 2009.

—Mobile telephone platforms

—-We have only seen the very early start of mobile telephones as part of the multiplatform environment of the newsroom.  However, newspapers of all sizes are looking at mobile phones for breaking news. 2009 should be a prime year for the continuation of this trend.  The iPhone and the newly revamped Blackberry pave the way. One tip: make text on mobile phone units short, and let the images flow in!

—Online editions: ready for 2.1?

—-This has been an area of tremendous growth in 2008, but the next year should see newspaper operations turning their attention to how they can best explore the potential of online editions beyond the “news” component, and more into aggregate sites, interactive modules, multi media packages and advertising experimentation.

We look forward to 2009, which should start with the launch of the print edition of Next, in Lagos, Nigeria.
Already an online newspaper Next will see the light on Jan. 4.

We show you here prototype front pages for what Next will look like when it appears in print, Jan. 4, 2009.  It will be a compact format daily, a broadsheet on Sunday, with a features supplement called X2 Next.

Predictions continue to warn us of a 2009 where the economy will suffer at least through the first six months.  For all of us in the media, a good time to continue rethinking what we do, and to make sure that our products update themselves for challenging and interesting times.

Here, in alphabetical order, a full listing of Garcia Media projects completed worldwide during 2008, which experimented with the trends outline above:

• Cape Gazette, Delaware, USA
• Diario do Para, Belem, Brasil
• Diez.hn, Honduras
• ElHeraldo.hn, Honduras
• El Informador, Barquisimeto, Venezuela
• El Litoral, Santa Fe, Argentina
• IFRA Magazine, published in several languages
• La Prensa, Panamá
• LaPrensa.hn, Honduras
• La Tribune, Paris, France
• Paris Match, Paris, France
• Ritmo Social, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
• Sakshi, Hyderabad, India
• Sakal Times, Pune, India
• Sakal published in mariathi , Pune, India
• Salzburger Nachrichten, Salzburg, Austria
• The Day, New London, CT,USA
• The Nation, Bangkok, Thailand
• The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City, USA
• Xpress, Bangkok, Tailandia
• Yale Daily News, New Haven, CT, USA

To read TheRodrigoFino blog, in Spanish, go:
http://garciamedia.com/latinamerica/blog/
Rodrigo Fino summarizes the year that was

TheMarioBlog posting #161

As 2008 comes to a close, and as we review the work we have completed over the past 12 months at Garcia Media, we feel especially proud of those projects where we collaborated in the creation of a new newspaper.

In the midst of one of the worst economic downturns in history——and with the newspaper industry severely affected not only by the economy, but also by trends in how media users consume news and information—-we witnessed the start of three new newspapers, with a fourth completed, and ready for launch Jan. 4, 2009 (Next, in Lagos, Nigeria).

The new newspapers are:
The Daily Xpress of Bangkok, Thailand
Saatschi of Hyderabad, India
Saakal Times, Pune, India

Each of these newcomers represents a milestone in its circulation area; In Bangkok, The Daily Xpress became the first free newspaper ever in Thailand, with one important characteristic: it is distributed free by itself, but also inserted as a supplement to the paid newspaper, The Nation, which has become an economics/politics daily.

In Hyderabad, India, the new Saatschi is published in the Telugo regional language, and sells over one million copies daily.

In Pune, India, the Saakal Times becomes the English-language newspaper of the area, while the same media house produces another one of our products, Saakal, in the Marathi language.

2008 and the trends

As we worked through more than 20 different projects during the year, our Garcia Media team and I witnessed the following trends shaping up among our clients:

—Consolidation of content—-more newspaper editors and publishers worldwide took a good, hard look at how they present information, and considered different ways of merging related content, and, in some instances removing sections and departments no longer viable economically, or as a result of online coverage.  Specifics that come to mind:

*Stock listings—-in some instances, four pages of these numbers were brought down to two.
*Classifieds—this is one area where many newspapers studied the section to eliminate categories, or extend offerings through online.
*Mixing of sections—-it is not unusual these days to combine sports and business, for example.  With proper guidance, readers don’t seem to mind when changes in the “flow of the book” are made.

—Change of page format—-while European newspapers continue to turn to the compact formats to facilitate use of the newspaper, while saving money, several newspapers in the United States, including The Oklahoman, adopted the narrower 44” web.  More traditionally broadsheet newspapers worldwide also switched to “tabloid” format for supplements inserted in the newspaper.

—More attention to navigation—-If there was one issue that all newspapers turned their attention to was how to make the reader’s trip through the newspaper easier.  Editors everywhere asked us for the ultimate navigational tools, not only on page one, but also through the entire newspaper.

—Integrating print/online—-What was basically a matter of choice only two years ago, the idea of fusing print and online operations has become a must. I am happy to say that every one of our clients is keenly interested in establishing the type of newsroom where news is seen as protagonist on a multiplatform stage.

—Storytelling strategies—-This was a peak year for editors everywhere to rethink how their reporters and editors tell stories. More attention has been paid to creating strategies that allow for better utilization of secondary readings, brief items, photo galleries and info graphics as part of the storytelling process.

—Advertising innovations—-Perhaps it was the dismal economy that ruled the day in this area, but I had never seen so much experimentation with various advertising sizes and configurations by newspapers everywhere.  From wrap around ads, to island ads, to silent ads, and, of course, page one ads in various sizes, all made a safe landing in 2008. I predict we will see more of this in 2009.

—Mobile telephone platforms—-We have only seen the very early start of mobile telephones as part of the multiplatform environment of the newsroom.  However, newspapers of all sizes are looking at mobile phones for breaking news. 2009 should be a prime year for the continuation of this trend.  The iPhone and the newly revamped Blackberry pave the way. One tip: make text on mobile phone units short, and let the images flow in!

—Online editions: ready for 2.1?—-This has been an area of tremendous growth in 2008, but the next year should see newspaper operations turning their attention to how they can best explore the potential of online editions beyond the “news” component, and more into aggregate sites, interactive modules, multi media packages and advertising experimentation.

We look forward to 2009, which should start with the launch of the print edition of Next, in Lagos, Nigeria.
Already an online newspaper Next will see the light on Jan. 4.

Predictions continue to warn us of a 2009 where the economy will suffer at least through the first six months.  For all of us in the media, a good time to continue rethinking what we do, and to make sure that our products update themselves for challenging and interesting times.

Here I am surrounded by my grandchildren as they opened their presents yesterday.  The look in their eyes, the smiles and the giggles remind us what Christmas is all about.
For a moment or two, one can concentrate on the spirit of the season.

To read TheRodrigoFino blog, in Spanish, go:
http://garciamedia.com/latinamerica/blog/

Today, Rodrigo Fino writes about the new “television menu” made possible through the Internet

Federico Aubele, Postales, included in Gran Hotel Buenos Aires
Duration: 04:06

TheMarioBlog posting #161

We show you here prototype front pages for what Next will look like when it appears in print, Jan. 4, 2009.  It will be a compact format daily, a broadsheet on Sunday, with a features supplement called X2 Next.

Updated Friday, Dec. 19, 2008

The Next website has experienced its share of first-day technical difficulties, so it continues to be a “very soft” launch today, with some articles appearing fully, other sections not integrated yet, but with team and technicians at Next working around the clock to make sure that the site is running smoothly as soon as possible.

Says Jeremy Weate, project leader, who claims he is too tired to be formal: “We’re out of nappies and learning to use the toilet”

Final prototype version of the Next website/Garcia Media 2008

It is always a day of celebration when a new newspaper is born. So, here we are, at almost the grand finale of 2008,a year many will wish to forget following a string of bad financial news, all of which have made newspaper stories, in particular, quite grim and desperate.  In the midst of this landscape, a new newspaper is born in Lagos, Nigeria.  We at Garcia Media are proud to have been involved with the NEXT team from day one.

Now the online edition is there—-yes a light launch,or beta version, as it will take days and weeks to get this site running to its full potential. To prepare for that, the team, under the leadership of Dele Olojede, with whom I had had the pleasure of first working when he was an editor at Newsday, of Long Island.

Dele is a Nigerian Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and former foreign editor for Newsday and was the first African-born winner of the Pulitzer Prize.  Dele has overcome tremendous challenges to recruit young journalistic talent, and to train them, and get them ready for what is likely to be one of the most youthful, inspiring and service-oriented newspapers ever published in Africa.

For the Garcia Media team, we worked with my son, Mario Garcia Jr., who created the Next website, working closely with Frank Traina; for the print edition of Next we worked with our art director Christian Fortanet, and the ever resourceful Ron Reason, handling newsroom training, sprinkled with tons of inspiration and tips.

Welcome to NEXT. We’re glad you found us. This means that now we are fellow travellers on a journey of discovery- which should surprise, amaze, infuriate, and inspire us. NEXT is launched now to provide news and informed opinion fairly and accurately to the Nigerian public in any land, based on the best judgment of the editors, and in a way that serves the public purpose and is compatible with the demands of an open and democratic society. We will deliver this to you wherever you are and by every means-via this web medium, on your mobile devices, to your desktop, on Tweeter and YouTube and Facebook-anywhere we can find you. Of course, we will engage you also via a superbly designed and edited and produced daily newspaper. The paper, NEXT and NEXTonSunday, will be distributed from Jan. 4 2009 simultaneously in multiple cities, in Nigeria and in the UK and the United States. That’s a first for an African publication. Just so you know, our web site and our papers have been designed by Mario Garcia

From NEXT project leader: Jeremy Weate

Personally, this has been a journey of over two years, working closely with Dele Olojede and Garcia Media and our technical partners to create what we anticipate will be, in time, the best news website in Africa.  For our initial preparation, we looked at hundreds of online news sites around the world, and visited quite a few leading organisations to talk to their senior digital management staff.  The content management system we are using is best-of-breed, providing an operating environment that seamlessly integrates print and web. Our website combines design elements, functionality and user experience flavours from our favourite sites, and gives them a Nigerian twist.We launched a couple of weeks ago on Twitter - apart from providing some upfront awareness of the brand/service, launching on Twitter gave our reporters a first taste of how a contemporary newsroom works.  Rather than ‘print’ or ‘web’, NEXT generates content that places itself on the most appropriate channel – Twitter, sms, web, YouTube, Facebook, newsprint etc. throughout the day according to the lifestyles of our users.  As the name of our brand indicates, our focus is on providing as close to real-time a service as possible, with an analytical focus on what lies ahead. 

The website you will see in a few hours time will be the worst you will ever see it – we will be continuously optimising the user experience in the next few days, weeks and months.  Just like the road that brought us to this point, we have a long way to go to satisfy the varied needs of our audience (Nigerians, Africans and Africa-observers around the globe).  Every step will be a thrill, because it brings us closer to a goal: of providing Nigerians and Africans with a news service that holds its own with the best in the world.

Print edition of NEXT to follow

The paper, NEXT and NEXTonSunday, will be distributed from Jan. 4 2009 simultaneously in multiple cities, in Nigeria and in the UK and the United States. That’s a first for an African publication. This printed newspaper will be in a tabloid/compact format, with the navigation that modern Internet-inspired readers demand, plus a color palette to reflect the colorful environment of the newspaper’s home base, Lagos.

The Next facts at a glance

Title: NEXT
Launch of online edition: December 18, 2008
Projected launch of print edition: January 4, 2009
Projected audience: Nigerians, Africans and Africa-observers around the globe
Publisher and creator: Dele Olojede
Editor: Muhtar Bakare
Project Leader: Jeremy Weate
Creative Director: Victor.Ehikhamenor
Art Director, Isiaka Gbodiyan
Published in Lagos, Nigeria

About Dele Olojede:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dele_Olojede

To read TheRodrigoFino blog, in Spanish, go:
http://garciamedia.com/latinamerica/blog/

Today, Rodrigo Fino writes about how television, too, is having to change to adapt to the new media landscape..

In Frankfurt, waiting for connecting Lufthansa flight to Miami. The work for 2008 is completed, and now going home to begin the holidays with my family.

TheMarioBlog posting #159

Gulf News Weekend edition front pages

It is not just the sand that is hot in Dubai each Saturday. Now the newspaper weekend market has expanded, and readers have tremendous choices of which paper to take to the beach.
For many years, the Gulf News’ Weekend was probably the one big newspaper package to put in your beach bag before heading out to Jumeirah Beach for a day in the scorching desert sun.

Now, the new arrival from Abu Dhabi, The National, has started its weekend edition, and it is a great read, on the beach or anywhere. Complete with sections that are presented on the Page 2 index with just the first small letter of their names—such as m for magazine, hh for house and home, m for motoring, etc.—The National Weekender is a good combination of photo galleries, longer in-depth and feature pieces, all elegantly presented. While advertising is not yet as present as in the thick Gulf News, one imagines it is only a matter of times—-and better economic times. By the way, The National’s magazine, called simply “m”, is attractively designed and includes a variety of subjects of interest, from fashion to films to the very local, as in “Desert Highway: On the Road in the UAE”.

The business daily, Business 24/7 produces a weekend edition where the first big change is the use of a red box logo to brand this edition.  Inside, the info-graphic driven newspaper continues that approach, but it lends its pages to content that is more leisure and lifestyle related, such as The Life of Business and The Business of Life.  One sees more stories about automobiles, the movies (a recent Page One story is all about the epic film, Australia, and displays a photograph of Aussie actor Hugh Jackman on the cover).

Although Dubai’s other English language daily, The Khaleej Times, has redesigned and improved its content and organization vastly, it still does not have a specific “weekender” edition as such. However, it adds to the mix of choices for readers who want to read in English.  Of course, there are three Arab-language dailies also in the market here.

As in all competitive environments, and with three newspapers providing good visual and content information for weekend reading, there is no question that the road is clear for each of the titles in the UAE to try to get better each time.  In the case of weekend editions, it is not a matter of editors looking at their competitors to see which news story they may have missed. It is more like taking a close look to see what wonderful piece is there to engage readers as opposed to the content on their own.

The good reads are there in all three newspapers. One in particular, from The National Weekender, caught my eye. The headline? “Camels are the new goats”

About weekend newspaper circulation in the UAE: By the way, “weekend” means Friday for UAE newspapers.  The only newspaper that is officially audited is the Gulf News.  According to BPA Worldwide Newspaper Auditors, the circulation figures available for the Gulf News,Friday Weekend edition, as of September 2008: 118,642 copies.

The ad that hugs Page One

In Dubai, today’s Gulf News displays a “hugger ad” for a car tire company. It is business as usual for the Gulf News advertising department, as it sells hugger ads frequently for a variety of clients.  The hugger wraps around the first section of the newspaper, covering part of Page One, but it is easily removed, but not before the readers sees the giant tires and the headline: Your One-Stop Professional Tyre Shop!

To read TheRodrigoFino blog, in Spanish, go:
http://garciamedia.com/latinamerica/blog/

Today, Rodrigo Fino writes about the almost “silent advertising” appearing on line.

Insurance against heart attacks
Belgium
2008
Agency: Duval Guillaume, Antwerp

Today’s pictures of the Burj Dubai, taken quite close to the structure by Haydee Perez, wife of Gulf News design director, Miguel Gomez.  Today marked a historic day for the Burj Dubai, as it is now reached its maximum height so they placed an antenna at the top. Enjoy the views.

Yesterday evening, on the way back to the hotel, I took this picture of the ever changing Dubai skyline. To the far left is the Burj Dubai, still in construction and described as the tallest building in the world. I have been photographing it through its entire construction with every visit I make to Dubai. I am fascinated by the small crane at the very top of the building now, high up in the clouds, almost a kilometer up in the air. And, in fact, the first Giorgio Armani hotel ever, will be among the many attractions of the Burj Dubai, which will also include shopping, offices and residences. Anyone interested in seeing clouds outside the window, or desert views extending for miles, this is it!

For more information about the Burj Dubai:
http://www.burjdubai.com/

In Dubai with the Gulf News the rest of the week.  Here I enjoy a midmorning Arabic coffee today, served by the newsroom office assistant, Kabir Siraz Ullah.

TheMarioBlog posting #156

Here are some highlights of the interview between Fino and Varela, which I have translated. Below you will get a link for the entire interview in Spanish:

On the nature of change for news and the media

All is changing, the proper nature of content, the access of citizens to information, but also their cognitive perception, the way information is distriburted and how it is utilized. We are living a change not only in the way journalists work, but also in the nature and ecology of such information. This is why the quality criteria of content and media are changing. The fundamental charaterisctics of quality journalism remain intact: precision, newness, interest, utility, influence, social repercusion, etc., and many of the attributes of style persist and will always persist. But the mere texture of information changes. Journalism is not something “finished” or finite in its production, editing and distribution.  Now, each of the processes remains open and many sources, including the public, get involved in it. It is a sort of interaction between the technological tools of this multimedia environment, which allow for information to be developed as a process where the media become platforms, and where the users can participate as part of the process. Many of these processes are yet to be discovered.“

On the power of blogs as part of social discourse

Without any doubt, social networks are consolidating as the new forum for discussion and citizen participation.  Look at the 3.0 participatory campaign of Barack Obama.. This has not only proved the candidate’s ability to raise money, but also the high level of mobilization and organization that is possible within the society (militants and voters, in this case), and we now see it again as Obama forms its transitional government using the net, Change.gov, a forum for discussion and dialog, which make political rethorical statements into reality……the social networks are offering people the tools for action.

About citizen journalism

There is a lot of journalism in citizen journalism, if we may call it that.  To me there is no such thing as citizen journalism . I am an old defender of journalism as an act, not a profession, or a discipline. Many journalists who work in newsrooms spend a large part of their professional lives without practicing journalism. They produce contents for the media, but to do real journalism, not much. By the same token, many other people do practice journalism by reporting stories, connecting with the media, capturing and transmitting information, whether they are “journalists” or not. Indeed, journalism is the act of doing these things…..And now citizens have the tools, through technology, to engage in these activities.

About blogs

Blogs are getting more democratic and maturing, of course. To have a blog requires that you have a big ego, and a great desire to communicate information, to relate to others, to communicate experiences. Today, this is changing, as there are additional tools for those who wish to communicate their experiences. There is, for example, the various social networks which allow for interaction, and microblogging, additional tools which adapt, in some cases, better than blogs in terms of communication and identity.

For the entire Fino/Varela interview go here:
http://garciamedia.com/latinamerica/blog/archives/el_atomo_de_la_informacion_ya_no_es_la_noticia

[+] Read about Juan Varela here:
• Sociedad Cableada
• Vida 3.0

This is Juan Varela’s daily blog, a must read for those who wish to be updated on the Spanish-language press:
• Periodistas 21

In Dubai with the Gulf News the rest of the week.  Here I enjoy a midmorning Arabic coffee today, served by the newsroom office assistant, Kabir Siraz Ullah.

TheMarioBlog posting #155

At first I thought it was a wrap around ad on the cover of TIME, the big poorly spaced headline, then assorted miniature boxes with type too difficult to read, sprinkled like candy grains on a cupcake.  Then I took a second look. No, this was no advertisement. It was the cover story, with the title The List Issue: a comprehensive look back at 2008 through a collection of serious and not so-serious top 10s.

Of course, any lists of top 10s of anything immediately capture our attention, and this is no exception. However, when you try to read the text on some of those lists, well, at least the over-60 set of readers——myself included——gave it up.

The inside pages are a bit better, but the type for the boxes of lists does not increase in size, making it very difficult to get through what was, content wise, a very good idea, and an entertaining feature.

To me, the entire package, from the magazine’s cover to the 11 pages devoted to the story, was perhaps an attempt at ridiculing lists of all kinds—-which the popular press seems to have a preference for.  In this TIME collection of the top 10 of everything one could find anything from the top 10 discoveries (Snow on Mars was #1), to the Top 10 Break Ups (yes, you guessed right, Madonna and Guy Ritchie stole the #1 spot), to the Top 10 songs (give #1 to Kanye West’s “Love Lockdown”). 

While the content was entertaining, the design bordered on being a poor imitation of a Monopoly game board, a sort of parody of design. While we applaud the editors’ decision to tell this story in a non-narrative form, it is the design that probably kept many potential readers away. Shame.

Oh, yes, the one good thing was a corner of the TIME cover, next to the date, where 2008 is highlighted and the reader can check one of three boxes to describe 2008: very good, unacceptable, chimerical.

If TIME editors had done the same for their cover, I would have placed my check mark next to UNACCEPTABLE.

To read TheRodrigoFino blog, in Spanish, go:
http://garciamedia.com/latinamerica/blog/

Today Rodrigo Fino writes about the fact that NOBODY is invisible in the Internet

In Dubai with the Gulf News the rest of the week.
TheMarioBlog posting #154

Update, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2008, 10:45 am, Frankfurt, Germany

NY free newspaper on why the press is important

One of New York’s free newspapers, am New York, devotes its cover story to the dismal state of newspapers everywhere, and reminds its readers about the importance of the press.

Here is a portion of the story, which you may read in its entirety here:
http://weblogs.amny.com/entertainment/urbanite/blog/

In the last week, the Tribune Company announced it will file for bankruptcy, the Rocky Mountain News in Denver is likely to close and the Miami Herald may be up for sale. This comes after years of shrinking newsrooms from the smallest weeklies to behemoths like The Los Angeles Times.“What this means is fewer voices, fewer opinions presented in fewer ways, all of which has a tremendous impact on the public discourse in a very dangerous way,” said Mary Boyle, a spokeswoman for Common Cause.

TAKEAWAY: We wish Richard Curtis well as he leaves USA Today; also today, our Weekend Sequels: how The Miami Herald looked as a tab (sketches only), one week of new front pages for Wirtschaft Blatt, and the Chicago papers cover a governor’s scandal.

Enjoy your retirement years, Richard

He was there for the birth of USA Today in 1982, and he is still there today, nurturing the baby he helped bring into life and where he has mentored a generation of designers and infographic artists. In a sense, Richard Curtis was there at the creation, and now he is ready to say goodbye to USA Today and to the industry, and go for a well deserved retirement.

We will miss you, Richard, as you have been an inspiration to all of us in the profession. You have left your mark. USA Today continues to be one of the most imitated newspapers worldwide.  It is, in many ways, a point of reference.  Tell me about it: you could be doing a focus group in a remote corner of Australia, but if the prototype has a variety of colors, someone will immediately say: “That’s like USA Today. “

Not to mention weather maps. The moment that USA Todayintroduced its giant weather map, with color coding for various temperatures, there was no return to the simple quarter page weather story.  Small countries like Austria wanted to have a USA Today-style weather page, even if the page would be larger than the map of the country.  It did not matter, there was that weather page from USA Today hanging from the editor’s hand as the model.

But it was in the area of infographics where USA Today helped write the book through daily examples.  It pioneered in the concept of telling stories without words.  Secondary readings, too, were a part of what distinguished USA Today from so many other newspapers in the 80s and 90s.  Today, all of these elements are common place and we owe much of it to the legacy and examples of USA Today.

You were there to present them all to us, Richard, and to train a team that would implement these ideas daily.  I imagine after 26 years of this, it is as good a time as any for you to get away from your Mac and pursue other interests.

As far as I am concerned, you are one of the champs of visual journalism. If we had Oscars and Pulitzer Prizes to give to those who have contributed the most to our craft (we should, but that is another story), then I would be sending you both prizes today. For sure, a bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne to share when I see you next, and my very best personal wishes to you and your family.

The Miami Herald as a tabloid?

This week one of our blog postings lamented the possible sale of The Miami Herald, as I reminisced about the personal ties I feel for the newspaper in the city I consider home, where I arrived as a Cuban refugee in 1962. 

Several of you wrote me very kind personal notes about that Herald blog entry, and two of you inquired as to how I imagined The Miami Herald in a tabloid format.

Not only did we imagine it, but, working with my Buenos Aires team, headed by Rodrigo Fino and Paula Ripoll, we also went as far as to do some mock up sketches of how The Miami Herald could transform itself into an elegant tabloid. The year was 2002, and the discussion did not go very far, as we embarked into a major redesign of the newspaper as a broadsheet.

Here is our handy work. Tell us what you think.

For the original Miami Herald blog entry:
http://www.garciamedia.com/blog/articles/If_i_could_purchase_the_miami_herald/

Wirtschafts Blatt: first week of new look

One week of the new look, what the managers of the WB call a “soft launch”, and the reaction is positive.

The front pages of Austria’s financial daily are basically a navigator to the top economic news of the day, with only ONE story that is read with full text on page one.

Notice the three levels of navigation:
1. The strip under the logo.
2. One story to read, usually the lead piece.
3. Secondary navigators with some lines of text.
4. The summary navigator, usually towards the bottom of the page.

The WB is also experimenting with different ad positioning, as shown on this page where a “belt ad” crosses the page, with editorial content above and below it, as in this inside page shown here.

For original blog entry about the WB, go here:
http://www.garciamedia.com/blog/articles/in_austria_wirtschafts_blatt_introduces_new_front_page/

Scandal on Page One

We show you here front pages from The Chicago Tribune and Red Eye which caught our attention this week as we followed the story of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, whom federal prosecutors charged with bribery for allegedly trying to sell to the highest bidder the Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Obama .  The Red Eye does it best. Hard to resist picking up this front page to see what it is all about.

TheMarioBlog posting #153

Update, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2008, 10:45 am, Frankfurt, Germany

NY free newspaper on why the press is important

One of New York’s free newspapers, am New York, devotes its cover story to the dismal state of newspapers everywhere, and reminds its readers about the importance of the press.

Here is a portion of the story, which you may read in its entirety here:
http://weblogs.amny.com/entertainment/urbanite/blog/

In the last week, the Tribune Company announced it will file for bankruptcy, the Rocky Mountain News in Denver is likely to close and the Miami Herald may be up for sale. This comes after years of shrinking newsrooms from the smallest weeklies to behemoths like The Los Angeles Times.“What this means is fewer voices, fewer opinions presented in fewer ways, all of which has a tremendous impact on the public discourse in a very dangerous way,” said Mary Boyle, a spokeswoman for Common Cause.

Enjoy your retirement years, Richard

He was there for the birth of USA Today in 1982, and he is still there today, nurturing the baby he helped bring into life and where he has mentored a generation of designers and infographic artists. In a sense, Richard Curtis was there at the creation, and now he is ready to say goodbye to USA Today and to the industry, and go for a well deserved retirement.

We will miss you, Richard, as you have been an inspiration to all of us in the profession. You have left your mark. USA Today continues to be one of the most imitated newspapers worldwide.  It is, in many ways, a point of reference.  Tell me about it: you could be doing a focus group in a remote corner of Australia, but if the prototype has a variety of colors, someone will immediately say: “That’s like USA Today. “

Not to mention weather maps. The moment that USA Todayintroduced its giant weather map, with color coding for various temperatures, there was no return to the simple quarter page weather story.  Small countries like Austria wanted to have a USA Today-style weather page, even if the page would be larger than the map of the country.  It did not matter, there was that weather page from USA Today hanging from the editor’s hand as the model.

But it was in the area of infographics where USA Today helped write the book through daily examples.  It pioneered in the concept of telling stories without words.  Secondary readings, too, were a part of what distinguished USA Today from so many other newspapers in the 80s and 90s.  Today, all of these elements are common place and we owe much of it to the legacy and examples of USA Today.

You were there to present them all to us, Richard, and to train a team that would implement these ideas daily.  I imagine after 26 years of this, it is as good a time as any for you to get away from your Mac and pursue other interests.

As far as I am concerned, you are one of the champs of visual journalism. If we had Oscars and Pulitzer Prizes to give to those who have contributed the most to our craft (we should, but that is another story), then I would be sending you both prizes today. For sure, a bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne to share when I see you next, and my very best personal wishes to you and your family.

The Miami Herald as a tabloid?

This week one of our blog postings lamented the possible sale of The Miami Herald, as I reminisced about the personal ties I feel for the newspaper in the city I consider home, where I arrived as a Cuban refugee in 1962. 

Several of you wrote me very kind personal notes about that Herald blog entry, and two of you inquired as to how I imagined The Miami Herald in a tabloid format.

Not only did we imagine it, but, working with my Buenos Aires team, headed by Rodrigo Fino and Paula Ripoll, we also went as far as to do some mock up sketches of how The Miami Herald could transform itself into an elegant tabloid. The year was 2002, and the discussion did not go very far, as we embarked into a major redesign of the newspaper as a broadsheet.

Here is our handy work. Tell us what you think.

For the original Miami Herald blog entry:
http://www.garciamedia.com/blog/articles/If_i_could_purchase_the_miami_herald/

Wirtschafts Blatt: first week of new look

One week of the new look, what the managers of the WB call a “soft launch”, and the reaction is positive.

The front pages of Austria’s financial daily are basically a navigator to the top economic news of the day, with only ONE story that is read with full text on page one.

Notice the three levels of navigation:
1. The strip under the logo.
2. One story to read, usually the lead piece.
3. Secondary navigators with some lines of text.
4. The summary navigator, usually towards the bottom of the page.

The WB is also experimenting with different ad positioning, as shown on this page where a “belt ad” crosses the page, with editorial content above and below it, as in this inside page shown here.

For original blog entry about the WB, go here:
http://www.garciamedia.com/blog/articles/in_austria_wirtschafts_blatt_introduces_new_front_page/

Scandal on Page One

We show you here front pages from The Chicago Tribune and Red Eye which caught our attention this week as we followed the story of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, whom federal prosecutors charged with bribery for allegedly trying to sell to the highest bidder the Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Obama .  The Red Eye does it best. Hard to resist picking up this front page to see what it is all about.

To read TheRodrigoFino blog, in Spanish, go:
http://garciamedia.com/latinamerica/blog/

Today Rodrigo Fino discusses what every designer has faced sometime: staring at the blank page or empty screen, waiting for creativity to make the move…….
In a piece titled “Fear of the Simple”, Fino writes that perhaps all creation starts with some level of uncertainty.

In Frankfurt, at Lufthansa lounge, while waiting to fly to Dubai later in the day.

TheMarioBlog posting #153

These are new pages from Il Secolo XIX sent today by Design Director Massimo Gentile

This is great news and the perfect reward for the team of a newspaper that has, indeed, said “yes, we can” and now they know that, indeed, they could.  Ten years ago, Il Secolo XIX was a good regional newspaper, but stories tended to run too long, and photos were too small and often did not contribute to enhance the storytelling process.  We cleaned up the design, stabilized typography and architecture and gave the newspaper a clearner look in 1994.  That was just all that could be done then.

Enter new editor Lanfranco Vaccari, and Il Secolo XIX suddenly came to life journalistically: better and more incisive stories, more briefs, a greater sense of local and regional coverage.

Enter new design director, Massimo Gentile, and Il Secolo XIX became a sort of visual animal: Page One graphics and photos chosen to tell the story in seconds, navigators that seduced the readers.

My work as a consultant became easier; for the readers, a new, exciting daily experience thru their new Il Secolo.

A proud editor in chief, Lanfranco Vaccari, writes:

The good thing is that we recorded the largest margin of victory in all the categories. As the award is about the journalistic content as well as the design, I would like to thank you for making it possible for your work and constant advice.

Indeed, I am proud, and extend my congratulations to Vaccari and his team, and especially to publisher Carlo Perrone, and design director Massimo Gentile, who has climbed high and steep mountains since joining the staff of Il Secolo (coming from Folha de Sao Paulo, where we also collaborated on the design of that daily).  For me, personally, it has been more than a decade of annual visits to Il Secolo, seeing it through various stages of design development, accompanied by our Garcia Media art director, Christian Fortanet.

This is only the beginning for the new Il Secolo XIX, an Italian daily to keep an eye for if you are interested in surprising graphics for Page One, good organization of content, and innovative photo editing in its news and entertainment sections.

Read all about the Il Secolo XIX award, in Italian:
http://ilsecoloxix.ilsole24ore.com/genova/2008/12/10/1101938308062-secolo-xix-miglior-quotidiano-regionale.shtml

Inspired by the past: striking Page One image

The image of Al Capone on Page One of the FAZ today

From an unexpected source, a vibrantly interesting Page One that says: Pick Me Up.
Germany’s Franfurter Allgemeine today sports a sepia tone, era-inspired 1931 image of famed mobster Al Capone to illustrate the story of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagejovich and his arrest on charges of conspiring to profit from the sale of the vacant Senate seat left by President-elect Barack Obama.  While several other front pages simply show Blagejovich, this was the front page to turn to. Again, surprise through the choice of an image.

Sarkozy #1 and Berlusconi #27

The composite graphic to illustrate the Sarkozy story in La Tribune

At La Tribune, one of France’s financial dailies, and one we at Garcia Media have recently redesigned and rethought, editors had the exclusive story today of how journalists based in Brussels chose France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy as number one among the best European leaders of 2008, so they decided to carry a Page One graphic that not only showed Sarkozy and the top five on the list, but also managed to display the three leaders at the bottom, including #27 and last, Silvio Berlusconi, of Italy. A very direct and graphic way of telling the story.

”Who needs a newspaper?”

Illustration as it appeared in the Financial Times, Dec. 11, 2008

Call it a hangover, a depressed period, the end of an era. Language aside, it has not been a good period for the newspaper industry, and particularly not a very good week.

During the last few days we have witnessed the following:

1. On Monday ,the Tribune company, which owns 2. Monday McClatchy announced that it is putting The Miami Herald for sale
3. The New York Times reports that it may mortgage its new, sparkling building on Times Square, to pay debts.

Now, Financial Times, columnist , John Gapper, , in a column titled, “Who will mourn local newspaper?” assumes that it may not be a large crowd, as they will be able to find even local information elsewhere.

, For complete column text:http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f9d8af36-c6ec-11dd-97a5-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1

To read TheRodrigoFino blog, in Spanish, go:
http://garciamedia.com/latinamerica/blog/

Today Rodrigo Fino asks the question: Is Design Dead?

In Vienna, Austria, through Sunday, speaking to a group of advertising/media people here, and reviewing the progress done with the financial daily, Wirtschaft Blatt

TheMarioBlog posting #152