USA Today daily newspaper was launched by the Gannett Company in 1982. Think back to that year: no email, no internet, bigger cell phones, even bigger computers, and only one 24/7 cable news network. (CNN appeared in 1980.) And yet, looking at an issue of USA Today now makes us realize how well it fits in the digital information culture we enjoy in 2007. Gannett gambled on something new and visionary, and they won. The newspaper has top circulation, around 1.7 million. Someone not aware of the history could reasonably ask “which came first – USA Today or the photos- and graphics-filled websites of the last decade?” When it comes to delivering information, a user-friendly medium must be friendly to the eyes also. An older friend told me that when USA Today first appeared, people joked about it by saying it looked like America’s high school newspaper; media critics didn’t take it seriously either, saying it lacked substance. But the genius of its creation is that the paper was in a way our first website.
What does this mean? It means understanding that news (a type of information) is about transmission, mobility, utility, and, above all, “sex appeal”. Well, you know what I mean. (Remember that the National Enquirer, a weekly tabloid, predates USA Today. See the genealogy a little better now?) Gannett intended the paper to be more eye-catching, sexier, than the competition by using color photos and graphics. Even the articles are shorter, much shorter, than other papers. It’s kind of a “one-night-stand” encounter with the news for the busy, mobile consumer with a built-in attention deficit. It’s no surprise then that the inspiration behind launching USA Today was appealing to an emerging traveler-consumer-reader culture. Less local, more global.
On the front page of USA Today, you’ll find a montage, a news buffet. There’s usually a hard news headline, but it’s next to other stories which can range from entertainment and human interest to money and travel. The paper is organized for a quick, strategic read with different sections: Life, News, Money, Travel, etc. The information is always condensed; there are a lot of color graphics; it’s easy to navigate through the paper, survey whatever is spread out on the papers before you, and get what you want. The French call it “bricolage”. Americans call it pragmatism. Traditional papers had local roots. Locality was both a strength and a weakness. USA Today hit at exactly the right moment to exploit an increasingly mobile (even globalizing) market of readers. What’s important to see is that the news media system itself, not merely the people consuming it, tends to grow in this direction with advances in technology. Perhaps, one day in the future, we’ll have only website newspapers. Miss the old school already? But for now, the romance of an inky, crinkly folded copy of the New York Times and a good cup of coffee is something of value the internet can’t provide.
http://www.usatoday.com/
What does this mean? It means understanding that news (a type of information) is about transmission, mobility, utility, and, above all, “sex appeal”. Well, you know what I mean. (Remember that the National Enquirer, a weekly tabloid, predates USA Today. See the genealogy a little better now?) Gannett intended the paper to be more eye-catching, sexier, than the competition by using color photos and graphics. Even the articles are shorter, much shorter, than other papers. It’s kind of a “one-night-stand” encounter with the news for the busy, mobile consumer with a built-in attention deficit. It’s no surprise then that the inspiration behind launching USA Today was appealing to an emerging traveler-consumer-reader culture. Less local, more global.
On the front page of USA Today, you’ll find a montage, a news buffet. There’s usually a hard news headline, but it’s next to other stories which can range from entertainment and human interest to money and travel. The paper is organized for a quick, strategic read with different sections: Life, News, Money, Travel, etc. The information is always condensed; there are a lot of color graphics; it’s easy to navigate through the paper, survey whatever is spread out on the papers before you, and get what you want. The French call it “bricolage”. Americans call it pragmatism. Traditional papers had local roots. Locality was both a strength and a weakness. USA Today hit at exactly the right moment to exploit an increasingly mobile (even globalizing) market of readers. What’s important to see is that the news media system itself, not merely the people consuming it, tends to grow in this direction with advances in technology. Perhaps, one day in the future, we’ll have only website newspapers. Miss the old school already? But for now, the romance of an inky, crinkly folded copy of the New York Times and a good cup of coffee is something of value the internet can’t provide.
http://www.usatoday.com/
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