Expect the (new) world
Interesting piece in Ad Age in which four designers were asked how they would rethink The New York Times for the 21st century consumer. (Reg. req.)
Lucie Lacava: Today's Times consumers buy it for the title and not for the look, but the next generation have grown up with loud media -- everything is loud and tells you what it is. The Times gives readers little sense of what's inside. That needs to be clearer, because younger readers are used to briefs and the particulars being spelled out to them on the Web.
Pelle Anderson: Some of the changes in newspapers I foresee within 10 years: The size will have shrunk from broadsheet to tabloid, then to half-Berliner or A4; the number of pages will be very limited, and the pages packed; white space will become scarce; there will be no stock market listings in print, these will be displayed on the phone, in real-time; newspaper/phone/PDA/wireless laptop will be 100% integrated; e-mail and SMS tailored to the individual reader/subscriber will be very important; bloggers will team up with newspapers, and vice versa; borders between "professional" writers and "amateurs" will (thankfully) become increasingly blurred, and newspapers brands will become less important; short info will beat long, personal views will beat objectivity.
Seth Banks: I would eliminate paper and go to a newly developed organic liquid-crystal flexible display. One presentation page that could be plugged in and updated prior to leaving the house, and everything would be downloaded into the memory. I'd like to try to eliminate paper altogether.
This display, when I turn it on and select it, would show me all the different things I'd downloaded. On Monday I'd get different news -- maybe sports news rounded up from the weekend -- than I'd get on Friday, when maybe I’d want closing stock prices or something. When I flip it on it looks like a white sheet, like the electro-luminescent panels that were used in costumes in "Starlight Express".
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Some of the changes in newspapers I foresee within 10 years: The size will have shrunk from broadsheet to tabloid...personal views will beat objectivity.
Looks like the Rhino is ahead of the game.
Posted on September 7, 2005 11:40 AM