The Tribune paradigm shift begins in Orlando

Love the sky banner on the front page that's screams: Are you having a stroke?

Pretty telling, actually.

Guessing that I'm not the only one who would think the Orlando area has a high number of blue-haired retirees, so I can't help but wonder if this product is really geared enough for them.

But maybe it is, given the emphasis on bright and bold headline treatments. If only they can carry that off on the horse racing results on the agate page.

 

Yay.

Wave the shiny object in front of the reader's face.

They are dumb and they all have ADD and what we really need is bigger pictures and more color.

 

Blogwatch!!

 

Interested to see how it looks when they can't cherry-pick the subjects and days for which to spend weeks creating a prototype.

 

Funny you should mention that:

I got this from some unknown genius yesterday:

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Lee’s Blog
June 18, 2008
THINK PIECE: THE REVOL-YOU-TION IS GOING SRONG

Just came back from Hartford and a visit with the Courant. I was expecting some progress, but I was BLOWN away by what they had created. No “tweaks” here: they’ve stripped all the vowels out of stories. Saves lots of space. Before I joined Tribune, I had NO IDEA that there were different kinds of letters!! Bosnia and Serbia just have consonants, and they are WAY over the top cool, with ethnic cleaning and stuff … This is some serious re-invention in full motion that symbolizes an altitude we need in all our nespapers, TV stations, web sites and reel estate holdings. They know how to market a STAR, like Katie Courant – name the paper after ‘em. Hits the READER like a 2◊4.

* GREEN. Before I joined Tribune, I had NO idea that newspapers were made out of TREES … And the paper never told me because it “assumed” I knew. Hell, papers should have photos of lumberjacks cutting down big oaks, standing next to smiling squirrels and owls …Put it above the stories on the front: “This paper is brought to you by the White Oak — Illinois’ State Tree”. People DON’T know that you have REAL trees exclusively being turned into pulp, because we ASSUME they do.

* INTELIGENT, NOT ELITE. Newspapers strike me as being a little TOO NPR. I like NPR and listen to “A Prairie Home Companion” all the time and once did a circle jerk with Garrison Keilor. But who wants to be like a radio network that listeners enjoy so much that they just GIVE THEM MONEY every year??? Morning News Radio has a lot of similarities to papers: Similar target audience: people pissed off, stuck in their cars waiting for the next trafic update to be broadcast, talking on their PHONES until the news is over. It’s probably a good thing to study the feel of a well honed All News Radio station. Too bad there ain’t one .…. I like the New York Post too, but it also can be a bit elitist, calling the police commissioner the “commish” and all, and printing nice titty pictures. It’s all about being smart … not intelectual. WE have that oportunity.

* REMEDIAL READING ROCKS. We are rife with assumptions.. That people will find great stories … that people like reading … that people know how to read. Hell, before I joined Tribune, I read at a SECOND-grade level. “Curious George” and “Green Eegs and Ham” were too hard. Don’t ASSUME your readers can read … or WANT TO. No one wants to listen to All News Radio, but they have to if they want to know if it’s an overturned bus or a car fire that’s got them stuck on the 405 for an hour. There are 25 million functionally illiterate Americans, and I’ll BET most of them don’t even read a newspaper! We can OWN that market if we set our mind to it.

* LEANER STAFF. The Courant has figured out how to keep putting out 300 pages per reporter while laying most of them off. They have a win-win: BIGGER FONT. They use a 24 pt Alburtus Extra Bold! Hits ‘em like a 2 x 4, especially the old geezers whoz eyes are going…. They understand that a death spiral is bad only if we ASSUME it is. Rock n Roll knows that. No one would still be listening to the Doors if Jim Morrison hadn’t snorted too much coke and died in a French bathtub. WE can be the Jimi Hendrix of media, DROWNED in our own puke, and DELIVER it in 21st century terms right onto our readers’ shoes.

 

Assuming re-design is a major part of Zell's initiative with Tribune Co. papers, was it really necessarily to trumpet and force-feed it? Wouldn't it have been just as effective -- maybe more so -- if the people who put out the newspaper simply appeared to launch a re-design without Zell, Michaels, Abrams et all firing all those pre-emptive shots across everyone's bow?

If re-design is the answer -- I don't believe it is, I believe content is and will remain king -- then just roll it out there and see what happens. People might even be more accepting if they didn't associate it with Sam The Vulgarian. He does himself and the company no favors by forcing every change on people in the loudest, least negotiable way possible, as if it all was castor oil to swallow.

That approach either discredits his brainstorm because it met resistance somewhere along the way or portrays his journalists as morons and fuddy-duddies. Where is the gain in that?

 

Well said

 

Whitley is a columnist who sometimes brushes with greatness, but often you get the sense that he thinks he's funnier than he actually is.

Nowhere close to being in Bianchi's league.

The Sentinel has been one of the papers that has actually been ahead of the curve online wise.

It's still one of the few papers that I find interesting on a regular basis.

 

Dave Eggers, he of writing fame, created the templates for ESPN the Mag. I know this because he told me this. Got paid a buttload of money for it as well.
I'm pretty sure he's not dead.
Unless there's a larger joke I'm not aware of.

 

If there's ever been a case of a redesign having a measurable affect on circulation for more than one six-month audit, I'm unaware of it. I'm not saying newspaper and magazines should never redesign, but they need to accept that it won't accomplish anything longterm, except design awards. If they want to change their look, fine, but if they are trying it as a solution, they are wasting time, effort and money that could be spent more productively on other things. I think glass offices, most of whom have never laid out a section in their life, like redesigns because it's tangible proof that the newsroom is doing something to improve the paper product. It might get the publisher off their back for a few months. And it beats, you know, actually having to address the notion that the content is going downhill fast.

 

I agree that re-designs are usually complete bullshit or just a way for the managers to make upper management think that they're dedicated to make the section look better.

Plus, all of the work usually falls on the designers and slot guys.

 

I think I am missing something, I don't even understand what that means.