Mario Garcia on newspaper innovation in U.S.
Newspaper designer Mario Garcia has a provocative theory about why there is less newspaper innovation in the U.S. than elsewhere in the world. In today’s entry on his personal blog Mario states:
[...] editors are extremely protective of what they consider to be “serious journalism,” and with this comes a negative reaction to anything that, like innovative advertising, could create a notion of compromising ethical values. Not that it has to be, but editors react that way.
Do you think that “serious journalism” sometimes stands in the way of newspaper innovation in the U.S.? Read Mario’s blog post, and comment below to let us know what you think.
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August 27th, 2008 at 7:04 am
This http://www.gulfnews.com/ is not innovation mr. garcia. And as for the Tabloid section in the afore mentioned publication, it is eye candy and nothing more. Hey, maybe The New York Times should buy redtube.com It has twice the reach, 4 times the rank and 5 times the page views of NYT. Great journalism! Jeez. I have never heard of anyone stopping their newspaper subscription because there was not enough color in it, or because it was too confusing to navigate. I do hear people all the time saying they no longer subscribe because:
- They have “paper guilt”
- The printed product does not add value to their life
- The internet has all the same content for free
True innovation is not going to be accomplished by Site and Paper redesigns. Those are band aids. True innovation will happen when newspapers hire extremely creative editors, programmers, and developers who allow their reporters, photojournalists, and videographers to be better than they ever thought they could be.
Examples of people and/or applications that add value to readers lives:
- Rob Curley and The Las Vegas Sun
- Adrian Holovaty and Everyblock
- Alan Taylor and The BIg Picture
- The New York Times audio slide shows
August 28th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Robert, thanks for your comment. What is you like about the four innovators that you cite? How do they add value to their readers’ lives. By the way, Adrian Holovaty’s project is funded out of Knight new media innovation contest, the Knight News Challenge (www.newschallenge.org).
August 29th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
[...] by recent comments on our July 31st Knight Blog entry about his work, Mario Garcia posted on the Garcia Media blog yesterday asking readers what they [...]