Good Design is Good Design -- Or is it?

Good design is functional design, whether we talk about toasters, fishing rods or newspaper pages. Good design allows the product to do what it was created to do efficiently, effectively and elegantly. A well designed toaster, for instance, should toast the bread (or many kinds of bread) to the degree desired, quickly and with minimal fussing with dials and knobs. Looking good in the process is a not inconsequential plus.

The business section's function is to give a specific segment of our readership a relatively comprehensive snapshot of business, economic and financial happenings since the last snapshot in yesterday's paper. A good design leads readers through the page, giving them the information they want quickly, clearly and memorably.

Because they have so many other sources to which they can turn for information, business section readers are probably less likely to jump hurdles to get information than other section readers, yet our business pages are generally not well designed. By and large, we have not accommodated business section readers.

Various experts claim the newspaper is dead, and it is true that we are having to do more with less. But we cannot continue to give business section readers less in the process.

Are newspapers really dead? No, not for a while. Are gray, text-filled finance pages dead? Sadly, no, and they should be. With all the other avenues of information available to potential readers, too many newspapers offer the same bland, dull and boring diet of long, gray columns and overwritten event pieces, the type of stuff that many readers won't bother reading.

Where is it engraved in stone that business and finance pages (along with editorial pages) have to be gray and boring? If such pages are intended to reflect their readership, then we have sorely misjudged our readers. Business page readers, current and potential, are not all dullards or gray-suited individuals with no spark of emotion in their souls. On the contrary, the ambitious, aggressive and entrepreneurial individuals who read the business pages are as alive and visually sophisticated as news page or feature page readers.

Half the battle in the newspaper industry is to get readers to stop on the page. The stopping power of a page is often determined in a fraction of a second. If a page isn't visually attractive with a definite center of impact, the reader is likely to quickly scan the heads and then move on.

Strong images, generous use of white space, and the unexpected element are devices that can win the first half of the battle.

In today's competitive market, the larger metros provide business page readers a much better-looking front than they did just a few years ago. The inside pages are still dull and boring for the most part, but we have to start somewhere.

Yet while the major metropolitan newspapers do a better job of visually communicating with readers, a very large percentage of newspaper readers, and business page readers, don't read the major metros. Most readers read newspapers in the 5,000 to 80,000 circulation category.

Business pages in this category appear almost as an afterthought. The Journal-Courier of Jacksonville, Ill. (circulation 14,500), is a small paper, and its one-and-only business page offers a single national story and two columns of stats (see figure 1). Looking at this page, I would assume there is no business, agriculture, tourism or other economic generator in the Jacksonville area. Do readers have to buy The State Journal-Register from Springfield, Ill., to get more business coverage?

The "Business Front" (and only business page) of the Fort Walton Beach, Fla., Daily News (circulation 40,000) (figure 2), has three stories with local slants and a business briefs package, along with the obligatory chart and market-watch graphic. More material, but it's still a long way off from capturing readers' attention.

In an era in which we have smaller staffs while still trying to maintain the broadest coverage, business news is often left to atrophy in our papers. Yet finance and economics have increasing effects on our lives. Businesses closing (even the local dry cleaners), new businesses opening or moving into our area, mortgage rates, interest rates, consumer debt, identity theft, internet scams, local council decisions on zoning, taxes and construction permits all play a role in our communities. But we find less time to cover these for our readers.

The Wenatchee World, in Wenatchee, Wash., (circulation 24,900), is a good example of where the average business page is today (see figure 3): a large centerpiece image and story, a "pep rally" story hyping the local Expo and a couple of local stories of general interest. Down the left side is the "Shop Talk" rail containing some interesting brief items. Good stuff, local reporting and straightforward delivery. The overall look and feel of the page is one of a moderate to slow news day in the financial arena. The centerpiece picture will capture attention, more for the content than the story, but the secondary picture doesn't tell us a great deal without the caption and the story.

Anyone familiar with the Readership Institute's Reader Initiatives will have noticed a lack of these initiatives used in these three newspapers. The "Did you know?" "What this means to you," "How to..." and "Why this is important" boxes are nowhere to be seen. Long columns of run-on text intimidate readers, and in many cases ensure that a story won't be read, are the norm.

And yet the "nugget" boxes are reader magnets. A reader is far more likely to read these elements than the story itself, and in many cases these devices provide the motivation for the reader to read the story. From a design standpoint, nuggets offer a stronger visual presence on the page and allow us to introduce a series of small, yet interesting, graphic devices and logos to the page. These devices can capture and hold readers' attention.

Go back and look at the Wenatchee World(figure 3). The page has two pictures, five stories off the rail and four shorts in the rail. Now take a look at the Business front of the Oklahoman(figure 4), Oklahoma City. (circulation 208,000). The page structure is similar -- left-hand rail centerpiece and picture, but there the similarity ends. There is a veritable buffet of items to choose from, all in a logical structure that makes visual sense on the page. The centerpiece has a pull-out on daily departures with airline logos, the storm story has a strong extracted quote, and the 401(k) "story" is made up of a graphic and a "Did You Know?" box. There are two hefty promos for stories inside, and the rail contains three shorts and informative stats panels.

The difference between the two pages is +/- 50 percent of the potential readers. I'll go with the Oklahoman.

Part 2

Click here to register for the Reynolds Center's Designing the Business Section online seminar, led by Nesbitt.