Contemporary design of newspaper and new approaches to structure of itscontent

Mediaconvergence defines the key tendencies of the modern newspaper. The idea of integrativenewsroom of the print and on-line media creates prerequisites for development of the concept "MobileJournalist" and poses a question of the division of information between different media platforms andself-determination of the newspaper in the contemporary information fields. Design responds to this ina number of ways. And visual journalism - intelligent use of photography, infographics and layout -has also become an essential tool for editors.The main tendency of the newspaper design is the changing of newspaper format from broadsheetto вerliner and tabloid. There are many different reasons for this. In some cases to "compact" size is apart of the newspaper marketing strategy. Sometimes the changing of the format is connected with thetasks of redesign. But in general newspapers become "compact" because of customers' informationhabits change. Many marketing researchers demonstrate that audience qualifies broadsheets as archaicand outdated.As Mario Garcia notes, "compact" format causes "compact" newspaper content, i.e. change of theway of information structure in print media by creating more dynamic and effective style. Obviously,the idea to "compact" content is connected with the changing of customers' information habits, too.The main goal is to make the process of newspaper reading more comfortable.The idea of the "compact" content is based on the same thesis as integrative design concepts.Design bridges the content and the audience. As design has communication meaning, it becomes a toolthat can be used to enhance a story or publication by initially attracting the reader's attention and/or bysupporting the content. So the main goal is to use instruments of visual journalism to organize thecontent of a separate message and the whole issue, to visualize the hierarchy on the newspaper pageand inside articles, to allow the reader to determine the level of destabilization in newspaper stories."Сompacting" content is used on the same principles as for web site. Good examples of the trendwould be news packages. The multi-layered design of the news packages is based on the principles ofencapsulation (division of elements into small manageable items, which are, as far as possible,independent of other elements) and polycontiguity (multiple navigation paths through the same bodyof information).To improve the navigation system is a part of creating "compact" newspaper content, too.Newspapers have their techniques of orientation. But it is not enough for modern audience who havealready got used to digital platforms. In search of new solutions to improve the navigation system inthe newspaper, designers turn to information architecture of website. Reconsideration of the basictechniques of information architecture does not destroy the traditional system of organizing andstructuring the content of the newspaper, but allows enhancing usability and findability using usualtools of newspaper design.In practice of foreign newspapers these principles are realized by short text and photo-briefs,news packages, separating publications to different blocks, creating multi-level navigation.

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