Poynter tweeted about this yesterday, even though the Swedish publisher spoke about it over a year ago. I suggested the same thing probably five or six years ago.

Newspaper design rests on the premise that each page layout should reflect the content of the page. This paradigm implies an infinite number of page layouts because the content, like a river one steps in, is never the same twice.

Approaching the news of the day this way gives you an almost impossibly hard task. I have always said that you could speed up the process greatly if you created templates for a handful of page designs and then used them in some sort of rotation.

This is what happens in the real world of newspaper work. People who lay out pages tend to repeat four or five designs week after week with only slight adjustments for content differences.

Do you really think the Average Joe and Joetta care about newspaper design? Do you think anyone would notice if you used the same layout multiple times per month?

If I were running a newspaper today, I would bring in a designer to help me set up my templates, then I would say sayonara and hire another reporter or editor. People want content more than they want well designed newspapers, even though I — obviously — think design is important.

If you need help with your newspaper design or page templates, e-mail me.

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I hear this all the time from my colleagues in the newspaper business. I heard it from the eight people who found the time to take the News Design School survey (thank you!). The main reason, they all said, they didn’t use the free NDS services was lack of time.

I asked about using the NDS Forum, reading the blogs, testing the tips, using the special (and free) Valentine’s Day info and graphics package. The answer, almost in one chorus: didn’t have the time, too busy, yada yada. The other members, the ones who didn’t answer, probably didn’t have the time! 
GOT TIME TO GAS UP?

If you are driving around town doing errands and you note that you are low on fuel, do you avoid gassing up because you “don’t have the time to stop?” I didn’t think so. To me, that’s the same logic as when people say they don’t have the time to work on bettering their business.

If you want to build your business and increase your revenue you absolutely must spend some time each day working on the long-term goals you know are important, albeit not urgent. As Stephen R. Covey says in his “First Things First,” we spend too much time doing unimportant things that are presented as urgent, so we think they are IMPORTANT. We allow urgency, which is really false importance, to rule our work day. We are caught up in the daily grind….of the trivial, or administrivia as I like to call it.

THE IMPORTANT VS. THE URGENT

If you allow these “urgent” needs to rule your day, you’ll never get the truly important work done, which comes across as NOT urgent. It needs to be done, because it will help your business, but you never seem to find the time.

Sound familiar?

YOUR ACTION ITEMS:

1. (You knew this was coming) Use News Design School and members of our community as resources and also give of yourself to the community. The site and its members have a lot of expertise that, if shared more often, would help everyone. The rising tide floats all boats. Share tips and pages, ask questions, give suggestions.

2. Create time by systematizing your work processes. On a small notepad you can keep on your person, jot down what you do every day for one week. Break down the steps and decide what steps are simple enough to be done by someone else. Delegate. Even a one-person shop can delegate by outsourcing, saving time for the important work. I do it. You can, too.

3. Create templates for your pages — so that when it’s time for production, all you are doing is replacing placeholder copy with your new story or headline. Create story and story/photo modules in an InDesign library and simply drag them on a page if the idea of full-page templates is intimidating. This approach is especially good on those plug-n-play inside pages with lots of ads. This will save you a tremendous amount of time during production, time you can better use for creative approaches on your front page and other “showpiece” pages, as well as for business-building activities.

4. Take 15-20 minutes at the start of each day by prioritizing what you will work on that day. Be sure to remember that after covering the TRULY urgent, write down at least one important, but not urgent task on your list among the top three tasks. THEN DO IT. NO EXCUSES.

5. By working smarter you save time to do what is more important and probably what you enjoy more than grinding through the day-to-day administrivia of your job, and that is: growing your business.

P.S. Here is an interesting article with some advertising/editorial content ideas: http://tinyurl.com/cxa85v

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