The re-launch of The Miami Herald has created much enthusiasm and buzz in the industry. Along with that has come a centerpiece story published on Poynter Online in which I was quoted expressing some thoughts on the re-design process of the Herald.
I said sometimes drastic changes do not take place in newspapers or other organizations because management lacks the cojones to do it. In no way was this meant to single out specifically my colleagues at The Miami Herald with whom I had a wonderful collaboration for one full year.
I still maintain that most newspapers should consider a tabloid format and I am very well aware that sometimes more than cohones comes into the decision not to do so.
It would be inaccurate to describe the process undertaken at the Herald for the past year as a mere “redesign.” The term redesign implies purely cosmetic exercises, where typography or colors are changed, but nothing more.
The Miami Herald that readers saw beginning September 15 definitely has a new and distinctive look. However, what is important is how the newspaper has been evaluated in terms of its content, navigation and opportunities to offer more service to the readers.
When publisher Alberto Ibarguen called me in to participate in the New Century project at the Herald, I immediately realized that I was dealing with a visionary publisher who had assembled one of the best internal teams to take a look at every aspect of how the newspaper worked –or didn’t.
A centerpiece of our work has been an awareness of how much readers have changed in the past five years. We live in a culture where lack of time prevails. At the same time, we are forever bombarded by information, and visual images, rendering what we do more difficult to assimilate at times.
In some cases, a sort of attention deficit disorder sets in for consumers of media, which leads us to bypass useful information, as that provided by photos and graphics, because we become oblivious to them. It is a fact that affects not only newspaper and magazine designers, but also those who design store display windows, furniture, clothing and gadgets.
And, of course, during the course of this redesign, the team, under the leadership of Dave Wilson and Sara Rosenberg, but also the participation of art director Nuri Ducassi, as well as designers Kris Strawser, Eddie Alvarez and Juan Lopez, set out to create various prototypes. More than seven of these were created, evaluated and analyzed. Some were taken to focus groups.
One version that was created and discussed was The Miami Herald as a tabloid, something that I think is still in the future for this American daily published in a city that turns more cosmopolitan, and Latin, each day.
The tabloid would not have been feasible for technical reasons, and the idea of the tabloid was then applied to the daily features section, Tropical Life, one of the favorites of the redesigned, totally fresh and with people-oriented coverage. Nuri Ducassi and Juan Lopez designed the concept for Tropical Life.
Better Navigation
Knowing what we know about readers – and we have conducted extensive research, and focus groups with readers – we have created new navigational devices, starting on page one, to guide readers to that one good story that may be inside somewhere; and we have a Five-Minute Herald, for the scanner who wishes to go for the quick read with a quick breakfast, and postpone more leisure reading for during lunch, or before going to bed. Reading the newspaper in more than one seating has become the norm for many readers
worldwide.
However, the degree to which readers are engaged with their newspaper varies, although we know that time spent is less than it was five years ago.
This is why indexes and other navigational devices are so important, and why we have emphasized them as much as we worked on improving The Miami Herald.
The emergence of the Internet, and the fact that so many newspaper readers browse web sites, where navigation is a key element, has made it even more important for the modern newspaper. Readers unconsciously transfer some of their Internet quick browsing behavior when they come to print.
The Three-Track Newspaper
The Miami Herald readers will see a three-track readership:
A) The serious, traditional reader who wants to read the newspaper more leisurely. But even this reader will be able to benefit from the better hierarchy for stories, as well as all the different navigational devices.
B) The scanner who first reads headlines, looks at photos and reads cut lines, along with summaries.
C) The supersonic-speed reader who has barely five minutes in the morning to get a glimpse of the news. The 5-minute Herald will satisfy the needs of this reader.
More Service Items
In addition, we have designed various styles to allow reporters to let the reader in a hurry know the background of a story, or to send the reader to where additional information is available. And, knowing that some readers may skip the newspaper a couple of days in the week, we will alert you to “what’s next” for the story, leading you to subsequent developments.
The Miami Herald emphasizes service seriously, not missing any opportunities to help readers survive in the race against time.
Color-Coding
Another plus of the project has been to create a color palette that allows for color-coding by sections. The navigational index on page one will be presented according to the color of the section it represents, thus making your journey through the inside of the newspaper easier and quicker.
That Sense of Community
Once all the right strategies of functionality described above are in place — such as navigation, typography, color-coding — then we turn our attention to how well the newspaper fits into the city and/or region it serves.
Each newspaper must have its own identity and personality, and not copy that of another paper. Aesthetics is secondary to individuality.
We hope that the new look of The Miami Herald reflects the diversity, high-level energy and excitement of the Miami and South Florida region.
After almost a year of working with The Miami Herald team, and after seeing the results, I am satisfied that the new Herald has the spirit and journalistic excellence that have marked its first century, but with the freshness, vitality and innovation that should inspire other newspapers everywhere.
One reader wrote me an e mail that read; “I hope someone can do to me when I turn 100 what you guys have done to the Herald.”
