But changes in newspaper design have had both positive and negative effects on the product. Anne Van Wagener of the Poynter Institute explains that good design doesn’t always equal good, valuable news. “Newspapers became more aesthetically pleasing,” she says, “but often at the cost of accuracy of the report and the credibility of the visual journalist.” (1)
Now that newspapers are focusing more and more on selling the paper, the designer’s role is changing. Design has traditionally focused on telling the story visually, on making information accessible and easy to read and on giving readers as much information and news as possible in a short time and in limited space. But with an emphasis on getting readers to pick up the paper, more and more designers are facing pressures to excite and dramatize the news through cool, sexy, powerful layouts. Although this approach produces some amazing, impressive design work, it also has the potential to create a false sense of drama and mislead readers about the tone and content of a story. The new Weekend Missourian provides a perfect example of the debate over the role of design in “selling” a story.
The first Weekend Missourian edition, published March 3, was a collaborative effort involving nearly everyone in the Missourian newsroom. It was especially important that the first cover story, about a new plan for redeveloping downtown Columbia, be designed to catch readers and draw them in to this new publication. Our managing editor said the first cover needed to have “energy, motion, movement, excitement” for our readers. Instead of trying to tell the story on the cover, he said, we needed to focus more on what would get readers to pick the paper up off their driveway and actually read it. Thus, “sell, don’t describe” became our mantra for the Weekend Missourian. The first edition used a full-page photograph of downtown Columbia at night on the cover, which embodied the “energy, motion, movement, excitement” that the paper was aiming for.
Unfortunately, the cover story was about city planning and was, through no fault of the reporter, pretty bland and static. The story inside contained none of the “energy” or “excitement” that the cover design seemed to promise. To some, it may have seemed misleading.
Journalists talk a lot about accuracy, and design is as much a part of accurately representing a story as is the reporting and editing. When we give a story more drama or attention than it deserves, designers run the risk of damaging accuracy and leading readers to believe the story is something it’s not. What may seem overdramatic to one person may seem appropriate to another, making it difficult to judge what sort of presentation best serves the reader.
It is impossible for any designer today to ignore the expectation that design will both convey information visually and entice readers to read the paper. However, these two approaches are not mutually exclusive. Jan White, author of Editing by Design, explains that designers must combine the two seemingly incompatible ideas of product-making and storytelling.(2) In the end, a successful design strikes a balance between the two, communicating specific messages to an audience within the context of the newspaper as a product for sale. The challenge for designers, therefore, is to balance the need to sell the story with the need to convey information accurately and appropriately. Good design, created with a thoughtful analysis of the story and a consideration of the needs of both the newspaper and its readers, can accomplish both these tasks.
(1) Van Wagener, Anne. “Looking good and getting it right: SND develops an ethics code.” Poynter Online.
(2) White, Jan V. Editing by Design. New York: Allworth Press, 2003. pp. 2.
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