News magazine?

Just glancing at a news stand, you can easily see newspapers and magazine look different.

Magazine design is much more free. Grids aren't as rigidly adhered to. And designers can dream a little bigger with a magazine spread. Sometimes a whole page will be devoted to a headline and byline.

Look at this beautiful magazine spread. The point is clear; the art hed is catchy. But one entire page of the double-page spread consists of only the headline and the story's lede.

Lucky ducks.

Newspapers are shrinking, which means page space becomes even more precious. Designers would probably love to design a gorgeous page with white space galore, but rarely does the chance come up. (See an exception here.)

But with everything else in the industry changing, why shouldn't the way we think about newspaper design change as well?

Enter: i Newspaper in Portugal

This daily newspaper was launched in May 2009. Its creative directors decided to combine the best of magazine and newspaper design to produce bold, stunning graphics. This paper still tells its stories but in an arguably more visual way.

But is all this design leaving good reporting in the dust? Is a page's look now the most important aspect, rather than the accuracy and quality of the stories? Will other newspapers just on the bandwagon?