Web Design vs. Print Design

Differences
1. Print design doesn't include hyperlinks
2. Web design has essentially unlimited space to work with
3. Print design usually has a new layout every day
4. You can't spill coffee on your web edition (Well, you can, but it will only damage the machine, not the paper. And you can't just buy a new 50-cent newspaper, you have to buy a $1500 laptop. (That is, if you're using a laptop. iPhones are running anywhere from $700 to $1,000 (maybe more? I only checked Amazon).))
5. The web edition doesn't get nasty newsprint all over your fingers and face
6. You can't wrap your fish with the web edition
7. You can't wrap your holiday presents with the web edition
8. You can't punish your puppies with the web edition
9. You can't paper mache with the web edition
10. The web edition doesn't turn yellow with age

Similarities
1. They both are vying for readership

As you can see, there are a great number of differences between web and print design, and not a whole lot of similarities. I think one way to get more people reading more news online is to make the newspaper's website more similar to the newspaper. The New York Times is successful online partly because it's the New York Times, but partly because its website looks so much like the newspaper:

Each website needs to have this connection with its respective newspaper, because a lot of people in a community feel a connection to their newspaper. If the website looks nothing like the newspaper they love, then why would they check it?

Election fronts

It's the day after Election Day. Every good newspaperman in America is suffering from a hangover today, induced by a late night not of drinking Tequila but of drinking in the Republican sweep across the country. Both local and national elections happened, and here are some first rough drafts of history (the good, bad and mediocre) documenting the occasions.

The Arizona Republic

Weatherford Daily News 

Chicago Tribune

Latrobe Bulletin in Latrobe, Pa.

Post and Courier

Virginian-Pilot

Oshkosh Northwestern in Oshkosh, Wis.

Newspaper + Museum = Newseum

Let's talk about the Newseum.

Every night before they leave their shifts, front page designers of member newspapers submit that paper's front page to the Newseum. Then the front page is posted the next day in an exhibit called Today's Front Pages. Hundreds of newspapers from all over the world submit front pages, and they are available for easy viewing access. Also, the actual museum in Washington D.C. displays a couple hundred front pages of different newspapers every day.

Front pages from when Hurricane Katrina hit, from when Obama won the presidency and from Sept. 12, 2001 are archived and available to view online or in person at the museum. There are also exhibits depicting the history of news as well as the future of news. But for designers, the best part are the front pages.

Need inspiration? Check your favorite papers daily to see how they're showing their information to the public. Want to just marvel at good design? All the time, writers say you can't be a good writer until you're a good reader, well, this is reading for designers. You can't be a good designer until you see the good, bad and ugly ideas fleshed out on an actual newspaper. Want to feel good about yourself? The Newseum picks its top 10 front pages every day from the crop it gets each night. I know people who have designed one of those top 10. It's an ego boost for sure.

But whatever your reasons, check it out.

A History of News Design, part 1

In the beginning, there was news, but there wasn't design. At least not much.

Back when concerned citizens first started newspapers, the idea was to get information out, not to make it look good. Since newspapers was the primary source of information, editors took for granted that citizens would read it. The front page didn't have to be eye-catching.

This front page is from 1964. A lot of people probably read it back then, when no other news source was available, but if The BG News tried to pull a design like this today, not many would read it.

That's a lot of text, and it doesn't flow well. Nearly every story is L-shaped, and L-shapes are tough for readers' eyes to follow. Also, there are about nine stories on the front. Today, most newspapers get away with three or four longer stories because big photos, big headlines, big design takes up space.

Actually, most of the tricks newspapers use today to get readers' attentions are not present: Big photos, punchy headlines, even bylines are absent.

But many of these differences come from how the paper was put together. Not many photos were used because it was so much more difficult back then to apply photos to the giant sheets of metal they sent to the printer (again, more about process later).

Design didn't actually start to change until the rise of the computer. The creative, design-heavy front pages seen today weren't possible without programs like InDesign and PhotoShop.

A History of News Design, part 2 coming soon