Newsletter No. 5: More content and design
I recently wrote about how the presentation of the information in either your print or web edition is a critical aspect of your reader experience with your newspaper or site.
I keep returning to the “Experience” study done by The Readership Institute in Minneapolis a few years back.
The study basically found that a different approach to the news by making it more reader-centric made the paper product more interesting by a sizable amount. This doesn’t mean you have to lower your standards of journalism, you just need to present it in a different way.
They found that you need to give people something to talk about, that you need to look out for their interests (i.e., changing how your write heads from summaries to ones that connect with the readers’ interests in the story) and that they like surprise and humor.
Nothing wrong with that. I think if we just present news the same old way, we have our heads in the sand. The times they are a changing.
I think it’d be a good idea to revisit (or see for the first time) the Minnesota studies, and here are two links that will take you to the best files:
http://www.readership.org/experience/experiencepaper.pdf
http://www.readership.org/experience/startrib_overview.pdf
I’d poke around the entire site. It holds lots of good information, including on the home page to a story that — for once — has some GOOD news about newspaper readership. (http://www.readership.org)
If you go to the Newsletter Archive (accessed through http://newsdesignschool.com/newsletter.htm), you’ll find an example of a story changed into an Alternate Story Format to show you one approach you can take to move in the readers’ direction with your content. ASFs are one easy way to do that. Please register and leave a comment!
DEADLINE APPROACHING: You have until the end of the month to sign up for the newsletter and get your free video critique. Don’t wait until the last minute!
Also, if you haven’t officially signed up for the newsletter yet (http://newsdesignschool.com/newsletter.htm), you have missed a few. This is one last chance to get free access to the archives.
Questions? bob@newsdesignschool.com
Story
Alternate Story Format
