Renown graphic designer Nigel Holmes will be the keynote speaker at this year’s annual conference in Buenos Aires.
Nigel Holmes to deliver Buenos Aires keynote
Graphic design legend Nigel Holmes will be joining us in Buenos Aires as the keynote speaker for the Society’s Annual Workshop and Exhibition from Sept. 24-26. We dug into the Update attic to find a video of Holmes’ presentation at the recent meetup in New York City and an interview he did a few years ago for the Malofiej annual. Of course, seeing him in person in Argentina would be the best experience, so we hope you’ll consider joining your SND friends there.
The Russian Newspaper Design Competition
We travel to Eastern Europe and go behind the scenes at the Russian Newspaper Design Competition in Moscow. The judges handed out 56 awards, with the winners being announced later this week.
Recap from weekend meetup in Chicago
A recap of the SND Chicago meetup, which happened on Saturday afternoon at the Chicago Tribune tower. Check out highlights from speakers including: Matt Mansfield, Adrian Holovaty, Jim Coudal, and Bill Adee.
Archives
China graphics workshop helps break new ground — More than 60 visual journalists attended SND-Chinese workshop in ChongQing, China, March 26-28. Jeff Goertzen, Hiroyuki Kimura and SND Chinese Director Lily Lu led the sessions.
Web Design 101: Time to head back to school — Class was in session this weekend at the SND Web Design Boot Camp as 30 participants eager to learn web design packed into a classroom at the Freedom Forum in Nashville. Tyson Evans of The New York Times and David Wright Jr. of National Public Radio guided the attendees into the world of HTML and CSS coding. As a traditional print designer with no knowledge of code, I was excited to be there and learn.
Design at business: What we started with Rev 2.0 — Big problems need big solutions. The problems facing newspaper companies today need some of the biggest ideas available. But finding those hasn’t been easy — lots of people have tried. On Saturday, the Society hosted a day-long event in Washington aimed at helping the struggling newspaper industry find online revenue solutions in a few key areas. These are a start. Please help us plan the next steps.
Small business solutions: Beyond the click — A typical newspaper.com — pretty much all of them, honestly — places banner ads in a way that makes them blind spots for Google, Yahoo! and the other search spiders. We don’t treat the advertising messages — the deals — as content. We should. We should put them in databases that are at least as well optimized for search as news articles. Then we should promote the best of them as chosen by users (via printing/redemption of coupons), the most urgent of them by creating limited-time or limited-number coupon offers, and the latest offers placed by advertisers. Our group considered options for small and medium businesses by putting ourselves in business owners’ shoes.
How news organizations can take back classifieds — Classified advertising — which includes cars, jobs and homes — used to account for 25-50 percent of newspaper revenue. Most of that advertising has migrated from print to national aggregators online, such as CraigsList. If newspapers can recover even a portion of this lost revenue, it could be a game-changer. How’s how we propose to improve classifieds online. Make it easy to use. Make it easy on the eyes. Make it free. Make it safe. Make it the biggest and best marketplace. And make it make money. There are still plenty of ways to monetize free classifieds, if we don’t give into the idea that the game cannot be changed. An example: There were other search engines when Google started.
Rethinking advertising + the homepage experience — Homepages get more traffic than any other single page on a news site. Typically, they provide a convenient digest of the newest posts on a site, which is a convenience to users. But this benefit to users creates a problem for advertisers and content providers who depend upon advertising revenue from display advertising. Here’s why: Depending on the level of SEO, 15 to 35 percent of users enter a news site at the homepage, then exit. This provides relatively few pixels on this single Web page to monetize an entire site. If homepages were redesigned to compel users to view more pages to meet their information needs, then sites would have more opportunities to generate revenue.
Mobile: Paying for functionality in news apps — Our solutions for monetizing the iPhone are based on existing technology coupled with an emerging audience. The current audience may be small, but it’s clearly growing. Mobile remains new, so it offers opportunities to pursue revenue strategies that may not have worked on previous platforms. On the internet, information famously wants to be free – that’s why we don’t believe in micro-payments or subscriptions. Mobile users may not be willing to pay for content either, but they are buying iPhone apps that provide features to customize content or deliver new utility. So we propose offering a suite of low-cost features to enhance the experience of content consumption — rather than charging for the content itself.
An effort to find new revenue models launches — Next weekend, the Society will be part of a day-long event in Washington aimed at helping the struggling newspaper industry find revenue solutions in a few key areas. The belief is that design thinking can help frame the issue because those of us used to conceptualizing can make a fast round of prototypes that will help spur further discussion and point to better practices. Along with Steve Dorsey, the Society’s secretary/treasurer, I’ll be part of the team that’s aiming for answers. We’re not foolish enough to believe we can fix things in one day, but we know the path to progress starts with a first step.
- Hearst to close Seattle P-I — The Hearst Corp., announced today that it will close the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on Tuesday. The March 17 newspaper will be the final edition of the 146-year-old, 118,000-circulation newspaper. We look back at the paper through the years in a slideshow and timeline. Hearst said it will maintain seattlepi.com, making it the nation’s largest daily paper to shift to an entirely digital news product.
‘The P-I staff relished its uphill fight’ — The Seattle Post-Intelligencer possessed a ragamuffin toughness. Like a two-fisted street kid, it earned its share of battle scars and wore them proudly. While at the P-I – those of us who worked there rarely called it the “Post-Intelligencer” – I found my ideas about visual storytelling shaped by people like Robert McClure, Ruth Teichroeb and Andrew Schneider. Not to mention Mike Urban, Dan DeLong and Paul Joseph Brown. These aren’t graphic artists or page designers. These are reporters and photographers who realize that content comes first. They are solid journalists who think it is a big deal to tell newspaper readers about a big story.
- Let there be light: SNDScandinavia’s annual workshop
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Photo by Lars Pryds
Oulu Finland was the site of SNDScandinavia’s annual workshop - Oulu24 from May 14 to 16. Why the 24? A whole lot of sun! It was light almost around the clock. Oulu is located in the northern part of Finland, about 75 miles south of the polar Circle. Oulu is also the northern biggest town in the Nordic Countries with 140,000 inhabitants. The town is well known as a Technology Center, with a well reputed Technical University, and Nokia has a also a big developing center in the town. - We need your help to plan the future of SND training
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We’ve heard from many of you about the importance that training plays in terms of SND’s tangible worth to you.
We’ve made some important changes over the last two years to transform the kinds of training SND offers.
- German-language visual journalists meet this week in Austria
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SND’s German-language affiliate, DACH, representing visual journalists from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, holds its annual meeting June 26-27 in Linz, Austria.
Sessions explore design, photography, information graphics, typography, illustration and more. World’s Best-Designed Newspapers™ will be on display. Speakers include Mark Porter, Wolfgang Beinert, Wolfgang Ammer, Andrew Timmins, Daniel Becker and Mauricio Gambarini.
- 18 international students receive grants for SND Buenos Aires
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The grants will help the students attend the 31st SND Annual Workshop & Exhibition, Sept. 24-26, 2009, in Buenos Aires.
Visual students worldwide were invited to apply for the grants and applications were received from 25 in the United States and 70 in South America. The students selected for grants have demonstrated leadership in visual journalism. Most are involved in student publications and in SND student-affiliate activities, and have secured internships, part-time jobs and other professional work.
- SND names Foundation president, publications director
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Society for News Design Vice President Bonita Burton and the SND Executive Committee are pleased to announce the appointment of Susan Mango Curtis and Jonathon Berlin to key positions. We’re still seeking volunteers for several other positions.
- Meetup: San Francisco on July 18
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Want a glimpse of the future? Try new challenges or careers? Or do you just want a laugh? The Society for News Design and Adobe would like to invite you to an afternoon of education, conversation and fun in San Francisco on Saturday, July 18. This is a free and open event to anyone who has an interest in media, creativity and innovation. You do not need to be a member to attend.
- A letter from SND’s president
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Dear SND members,
You have heard a lot of information tossed out during the last few days on how your elected officers and appointed board have handled two significant issues that collided: a search for a new executive director and a possible move of the Society’s offices to a university campus.
- UPDATED: A chronology of events that led to SND board resignations
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Members have called for an explanation of the events that led to SND President Matt Mansfield’s resignation, as well as the resignations of SND Foundation President Bill Gaspard, Publications Director Tyson Evans, and East Coast Metro Regional Director Jon Wile. We submit this with the hope that we can answer calls for transparency and move forward.
- FAQ: About SND and the transition in leadership
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Last week President Matt Mansfield announced he is resigning, effective Thursday. Several members had questions about what this means for the future of the Society. Here are a few answers…
- Let’s chat: A conversation on SND’s future at 3:30 p.m. EDT on Tuesday
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Matt Mansfield, SND’s president, and Bonita Burton, vice president, will answer questions about Mansfield’s resignation, the future of the Society, and steps being taken to ensure there’s a smooth transition. They will also talk about the Society’s ambitious agenda moving forward. We know you have questions. We have answers. Please join us at 3:30 p.m. EDT on Tuesday. Please drop questions on this post and we will do our best to answer them on the chat, which will be archived so all members can see what was said even if they were not able to join live.
- A note to SND members from the past presidents of the Society
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To: Society for News Design members
From: Past Presidents
Matt Mansfield, the current SND president, has resigned, effective June 18. The reasons for his resignation are not altogether clear to those of us who do not sit on the board of directors, but I — and at least 13 other founders and past presidents of SND who participated Thursday in a lengthy teleconference that discussed the resignation and its ramifications — are convinced that Matt did resign in the interest of the Society.In the phone conference, we fully acknowledged Matt’s worth to the Society and his many and valuable contributions over many years. We tried to dissuade him from resigning, but he was steadfast.
Where does that leave the Society, and more important, what does it mean to you, as a dues-paying member?
- SND President Matt Mansfield resigning
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Dear SND members,
I’m resigning as president of the Society for News Design.
It’s not a choice I make lightly, especially because I was elected by you to serve your interests in this organization — and because I love SND.