Newspapers set standard for paged media

The series starts in February 2007 with a detailed report on the prospects for digital newspaper presses.

According to Ifra, it is the paged presentation that distinguishes newspapers from other media – print, electronic or digital – that convey essentially the same information. Regardless of its size – broadsheet, tabloid, Berliner, or a variation thereof – a newspaper is instantly recognisable for what it is because of the way the information is o-ganised by pages and the way it is laid out on those pages.

Paged presentation is key

The paged presentation is key to the value that a newspaper adds to basic content. Size, position, grouping, proximity, weight, area, structure, sequence, consistency, variation, dominance, contrast, number and type of elements all interact to convey meaning beyond what is contained in just the text and pictures.

This is neither accident nor a contrivance of newspaper publishers. Perhaps more than any other medium today, the newspaper in form and function is a direct result of the way the human mind works. People react instinctively to what is bigger, higher, heavier or first. We naturally cluster things to make sense of them relative to each other, and spread them out to be able to take them all in at once. Humans are innately skilled at discerning patterns and significance from such grouping of information.

Hence the page. Or more specifically, hence the printed newspaper page.

Economical and effective

When one recognises the value of newspapers as paged media, one understands why they are still printed on big sheets of paper and why that will continue to be the case for the foreseeable future. Print remains the most economical and effective method for presenting a complex full-size layout of many and varied information elements, such that not only the elements but also the paged presentation are reliably communicated.

It would require computer displays a good bit bigger than are commonplace today or the eventual development of large-format electronic paper to offer a suitable digital alternative. And that is beside paper’s advantages in resolution, fidelity, visual flexibility and ease of use.

Twenty years from now, many newspapers could be printed on fast digital presses that are cheaper, quieter and very much smaller than the web offsets used today. And each copy of the newspapers coming off those digital presses could be individually different from every other copy, perhaps with sports scores or advertising tailored to the particular subscriber or to the particular news kiosk where it is sold.

However, 20 years is the earliest than anyone interviewed for the newspaper techniques report is willing to bet on realising such a future, even though the magazine’s research found that there has been a lot of recent technical progress. For the immediate future, digital presses fit into special applications for a publisher’s overall strategy of staying on the leading edge of paged-media production.

In fact, newspapers and providers are investigating numerous scenarios, distribution concepts and the potential of personalisation. It is all covered in the February nt report, which comprises eight pages in print and a direct-linked microsite of interviews, resource material, interactive discussion and user contributions at www.ifra-nt.com/future_press.

Free subscriptions

All employees of Ifra-member publishing houses and supplier companies are qualified to receive a no-charge subscription to newspaper techniques magazine via ePaper by simply completing the online subscription request at www.ifra-nt.com/subscribe.

Through special arrangement with Ifra, no-charge ePaper subscriptions are also available to all employees of companies that are members of the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) or the Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers Association (PANPA). When completing the online subscription request, note the NAA or PANPA affiliation in the Remarks box at the bottom.

For all other new subscribers, an introductory three-month ePaper subscription to newspaper techniques is available at no charge and with no obligation. Fill out the subscription request at www.ifra-nt.com/subscribe and enter the offer code “NS3MPR0207” in the Remarks box at the bottom.

Ifra’s newspaper techniques international magazine of newspaper strategy, business and technology is available monthly in English, French, German and Spanish. The ePaper format can be read either online or offline on most computers. A sample edition of newspaper techniques in ePaper is available at www.ifra-nt.com/epaper_sample_nt.

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