BIG Media rises to ThisDay design challenge

As Justice Malala, editor of ThisDay, wrote in this week's launch edition of South Africa's newest newspaper: "Here, as elsewhere, newspapers have become reams of dull grey newsprint, unresponsive to stimuli from other media and a changing world...."

That is why ThisDay turned to newspaper, Internet and publishing consultancy firm BIG to design the paper from scratch. BIG is a Johannesburg-based publishing laboratory that can take print and online projects from inception to implementation, managing all aspects of the project for clients.

BIG Media director Irwin Manoim has been working on designing the overall look of ThisDay as well as individual sections for the past six months.

"The design brief was to strive for 'understated elegance' rather than gimmickry, and to project the idea that this is a serious newspaper of substance. What made the process tricky was that the paper is up against a number of well-designed rivals," Manoim said. "Our solution was to compete by not being tempted to enter into a shouting match of large headlines and pictures, but to maintain a disciplined, restrained appearance."

Expertise

With this launch, BIG emerges as South Africa's leading independent publishing consultancy, with particular expertise in newspapers and the Internet. It is headed by Manoim and Anton Harber, who were founders of The Weekly Mail and have many years' experience launching and running newspapers as well as Internet sites.

BIG's design for ThisDay has met with widespread approval - from the publishers themselves to advertisers and readers, who have written letters to the newspaper applauding the design.

"Agencies say the paper looks great, very clean and fresh. They say it looks like an international paper," Malala said.

Dave Oxlee of Electric Pulse, a Sandton-based media strategy and planning company, has been quoted as saying: "It's a good paper, and that's what's important. It's a quality paper."

SAfm's Jeremy Maggs told ThisDay editorial director John Matisonn in an interview on Media@SAfm that "the response that I've been getting is that it looks fantastic - the layout is crisp and clean..."

The issue at hand, said Manoim, is to ensure the newspaper continues along its quality path: "The long-term challenge is to make the design principles an instinctive part of the corporate culture."

About BIG Media

BIG Media is an award-winning Internet publishing firm with experience in newspaper and Internet publishing. BIG's approach is to manage media projects from conception to production through its laboratory approach, including managing market research and producing business, project and production plans.

BIG built and manages South Africa's official national Internet gateway portal - www.safrica.info, which is aimed at tourists, investors and citizens. It also runs websites for the City of Johannesburg, Buffalo City Municipality (East London) and Mogale City as well as the official South African Cities Network website.

With dedicated teams working on each publishing venture, BIG ensures editorial and design are of the highest quality. BIG won the Loerie Award for web design (1997) and a Business Day Award for best government website (2001).

Directors Anton Harber and Irwin Manoim have been working together on media projects since 1985, starting with the creation of The Weekly Mail newspaper and The Electronic Mail & Guardian. Over the past 18 years, they have worked on other media major projects, including radio.