Polish newspaper designer Jacek Utko thinks it’s worth a shot. Take a look at this great (short: 6 min.) talk he gave at a TED conference in February. He argues that innovative design can reconnect readers with newspapers, and has the stats to prove it. The Eastern European papers he’s redesigned have seen circulation increases of up to 100% in three years.
But Utko understands that a great redesign has to start with a reconceptualization of mission and content. He asked the kinds of questions about business objectives and operations that, frankly, many designers tend to neglect.
Design is more than looking good; the design process can (and should) spur a news organization to rethink all processes, from what news is gathered to how it’s gathered to how it’s synthesized into final product and delivered. Great design can help drive an entire reimagineering of the who, what and why.
Too bad newspapers in this country have so much invested in the status quo that they lack the courage to shake things up the way Utko has abroad. As he puts it, what do they have to lose at this point?
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