The paperless household?

Design Week announced today that The Times are set to unveil a new design for their Saturday edition. The new look will get its first outing tomorrow. This in itself is nothing out of the ordinary, in fact its great to see they still place a value on the design of the paper, but it did get me thinking about the future of the traditional newspaper and those designers that specialise in editorial.

Its is well documented that the publishing and printing industries are experiencing particularly difficult times. This decline is surely as a result of the way people get their information now. The internet provides us with a far greater array of choice, and opinion, not to mention the opportunity to answer back. RSS feeds enable information to be delivered directly to us, how we want and when we want it, whether through our computers or mobile phones.

So where does this leave the traditional newspaper? Although my background is traditional design for print and its sad to see it decline, I fear the end may be nigh for this form of communication. I am sure this will take a little more time but lets face it, communication ‘is’ changing constantly. I will watch with fascination to see how ‘the papers’ tackle this situation. Will they have the creative nouse to think how best to maintain their revenues?

We’ve talked with quite a few people recently about becoming very niche with their business offering. This may be an option for the newspapers too. Why try and cover all the bases with one document when you could create niche publications (or websites) that send targeted information to a willing audience? This could provide the opportunity to sell these publications much cheaper but in greater numbers. The same may work for niche web advertising, sell the space cheaper but offer a greater chance of exposure and click through. I guess in many ways the website already offers this? That in itself tells a story.

Its certainly interesting times for traditional forms of communication. When I talk to my kids in a few years time about the paper round I used to do ‘when I were a lad’, I’ve got a funny feeling they’re going to look at me blankly.