Ben on Jacek Utko: Can design save the newspaper?

Talk:
Jacek Utko: Can design save the newspaper?


Brief Synopsis:
Jacek Utko sees no reason that newspapers need survive. We can delay their demise, but ultimately they offer what other sources offer better, cheaper, faster. So what is the solution to saving the newspaper?

Offer something new: put design into a newspaper. Consider it as an artwork, as a coherent whole, as a symphony. Have form and content, use design to drive not just the layout, but the stories in the paper. He has done it, won numerous awards, and, maybe most surprisingly, seen readership and subscriptions increase after years of stagnation and in times of decline.


Ben on Jacek:
One of the nice, brief talks on TED where you get to see an idea, examples of the idea, and come away with a small inspiration in about 6 minutes. It's not revolutionary, but I think anything can look at these principles and take something away.

For example, Science is presented and published with a lack of good design--and because of it content suffers. There is rarely an attempt to compel the reader with a story. Instead articles are dry, information-driven, and inaccessible to non-experts. In addition, scientists isolate themselves from the general public, leaving interpretation and dissemination of scientific discovery to a select few, and ultimately cultivating a divide between scientists, the highly educated, and the rest of the world.


Takeaway:
Keep design in mind in everything.


Rating: ***