The world's best-designed newspaper looks like a magazine

The judges declared that "many publications we saw are clearly operating at the top of their game, and have been tenacious and intelligent enough to emerge stronger from the economic battering of the last few years. But Portugal's daily newspaper, i, stood out for its ability to take the best of the visual language of newspapers, magazines and other publications and create something new that is more than the sum of its parts. It's compact. It's fresh. It's consistent, yet full of surprises."

More like a magazine

The newspaper feels and reads more like a magazine, sized 250 x 345 mm, than a newspaper, and is also saddle-stitched. The judges felt its format supports "the kind of flexibility that lets it focus on hard news one day and features the next" and that "paper delivers traditional newspaper content with new, engaging presentation."

The six-day-a-week paper obviously values good design and the judges liked the fact that the designers considered how opposing pages worked together, even if the content weren't related. The paper was complimented on its structure, fonts, use of colour and info graphics and headlines.

Social media and the web are rapidly changing how readers engage with content. It was quite insightful, then, when the judges noted "we found colour on every page, yet it is used purposefully, with smart pacing. It's as though the designers are using a highlighter to clue the reader in to what's important. One judge called this 'print search optimisation.'"

i is owned by Portuguese industrial conglomerate the Lena Group. At the time of the paper's launch, The New York Times wrote that "[i]t would be hard to find a less promising country in which to start a newspaper than Portugal. Not only are readers defecting to the Internet, as they are elsewhere, but relatively few people ever picked up a paper to begin with. And print advertising has plunged by more than 40% this year."

Mixing together

Even then, the paper's editor at the time (he resigned in mid-2010, reportedly over disagreements with the management over cost-cutting measures), Avillez Figueiredo, declared that since most readers already get their news online he would place thought-provoking and analytical writing at the front of the paper rather than news. It also dispelled with sections, mixing together political, business and other news stories since readers focus on headlines of interest rather than specific sections.

i is used to be art-directed by Nick Mrozowski who, in an interview with Editorsweblog.com, stressed the importance of never allowing the visual design to dominate the paper at the expense of the content, saying "the design should come from the content."

To view more covers from i, go to Flickr.

For more:

• Charles Apple: A Q&A with Nick Mrozowski, (former) art director of this year's World's Best-Designed Newspaper
  
• Charles Apple: 'Magazine style' news design spreads to inside pages

Last updated at 11.99am on 18 February 2011.