This is the second in a series of brief posts that outline the newspaper redesign process.
The first step, after deciding the scope of the redesign and whether to use an outside consultant – and what level – is to research and evaluate the present product and the people and system that produce it.
Find out what your readers like and don’t like about your current product and its various delivery methods: print, web, mobile, blogs, social media (such as Facebook or Twitter) and so on. It should be easy to ask for feedback on your web site, make a few phone calls and run a few focus groups.
You can get information on how to do all this yourself on the web, or ask your consultant for advice. There are a number of free online survey sites, such as http://surveymonkey.com and http://surveygizmo.com
Naturally, you should also discuss this as a staff and decide what additions and deletions to the content you think you should make. You shouldn’t simply turn over your content to your readers, who may not even be aware of some of the choices you can offer. Be sure to think outside the box here. Don’t get stuck in old ruts. You have a lot of new choices out there.
This is also a good time to study your competition, especially their web sites, since that is where you will meet television stations, bloggers and freelance sites head-to-head. In a competitive marketplace, you need to be sure you are offering the consumer the best package.
Once the content in the print edition is settled, decide whether you are going to buy into the move to smaller formats (tab, Berliner) and then decide where various elements will go. It is better to anchor sections and content so that readers can easily find what they are looking for each issue. The key is to make it easy for the readers, who don’t want to have to think or search.
We’ll talk about the Design Stylebook in a later post, but this would be a good time to start writing down information that will go into that stylebook.
NEXT: Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your production process. Do you need any new technology to make the changes you envision?
Related posts:
