Newspapers use graphic makeovers as tools for renovation and also for advertising.
Since last Sunday, Folha has a new appearance. It is the fifth big makeover since the end of the 1980s.
In the increasingly competitive struggle for market share, news organizations have adopted graphic makeovers as a tool for renovation and advertising. The stilted adjectives for each new initiative are increasingly publicity-oriented. And, because all big Brazilian newspapers have had renovations in recent years, the impact of each change gets increasingly smaller.
Folha’s graphic makeover is part of the features of modern life that challenge newspapers: the public’s lack of time, the Internet and the speed at which news is distributed. The newspaper is now being edited in a way that can be read at -two speeds- – five minutes (for the -reader who thumbs through the pages-) or 50 minutes (-for the deep reader-).
My first impression is that this was excessive – the colors, graphic resources and the slow drip of information, as I mentioned in my internal critique on Monday. Through Friday I received 115 messages about the makeover. As always, there is little praise, but this time there were numerous messages of support, 21, the most that I received about any initiative by the newspaper. I am reminded that readers are rarely satisfied when they seek the ombudsman. Let’s go to the criticism.
Less text
Demtrio Magnoli, who writes the column on Thursday that appears on page A2, calculated that he lost 200f the space he had and complained at the bottom of his column on May 25 (-What was not said-). -This column lost almost one-fifth of its space. What good is an opinion without (supporting) facts or historic context?-
Magnoli was not the first one to complain. On the Sunday the new project began, Janio de Freitas called attention in the note -An explanation is needed- about the rigidity that the changes imposed on his column. -It is a current trend in a big part of the press: priority given to advertising. This is a good topic to debate, about the origins and consequences; if there was enough time in journalism in general, it would not be uninteresting to discuss it.-
The space for readers shrank. -Letters to the Editor- published, from Sunday through Friday this week, 56 letters (many praising the graphic makeover) and an editor’s note; the previous week in the same period, there were 63 letters published, with three responses from the newsroom – a loss of 11%.
Let’s see how it will be from here going forward. The newspaper tried to compensate by adding letters to its Internet page (www.folha.com.br/paineldoleitor), but it’s clear that it does not have the same effect. Reader Jos Valter Martins de Almeida wrote that he imagined that Letters to the Editor would be increased but was disappointed. Me too. This ombudsman’s column lost at least 40f its space for text.
Smaller letters
Many readers complained that the size of the letters shrank in some sections, especially arts and entertainment. Ulysses Gavaldo was direct in stating his interests: -I am complaining about the crossword puzzle, that I am in the habit of doing every day but unfortunately, it was impossible with the shrunken letters.- He joked about those doing the makeover: -These people are lacking a little in vision.- The complaints extended to program guides for movies and TV and the horoscope.
Illustrations
Folha’s new model ended the illustrations in about 20 fixed columns. Columns gained more prominence, placed at the top of pages, but they lost space and illustrations, which are attractions for the columns and op-ed pieces. I received 20 complaints, mainly from illustrators. Most of the letters pointed out that Folha had valued illustrations over recent decades and that they did not understand the reason for the change for the worse.
Columnist Barbara Gancia complained about the loss on Friday: -The newspaper as a whole is more attractive and gained agility with the makeover. But in my humble opinion, this specific cornerstone on page 2 in the daily news section came out the loser. It looked like the instructions on a pharmacy prescription.-
It is still too early to reach a deeper conclusion about the newspaper’s changes in content. In my opinion, the most important aspect is that the graphic makeover and advertising campaign that it generated indicate that the newspaper, finally, is ending its journey through the desert that weakened the newsroom over the past three years, and has resumed investments in the newspaper. It was about time.
Cuts were up to 20%
I sent some problems pointed out by readers to the newsroom and received the following explanations:
Cutting text – -There was no linear cut. Some columns did not lose any space. For others it was more extensive, with cuts between 10 and 20%. But they gained visibility, bigger letter size, bigger byline, an eye-catching new look and font. In news stories, the Chronicle font, more robust and legible than the previous one (Minion) required cuts of less than 1 0n the total of news space in a full column.-
Size of letters – -Almost all the letters in the newspaper were increased. None shrank. Smaller texts got a new font, Retina, created specially to give more legibility to tables and schedules. In certain cases there were technical problems. Some, such as the crossword puzzle and TV listings, were corrected.-
Illustrations – -To improve the page layout, illustrations for columns on page 2 of the daily news section were eliminated. But they remain on the back page of the arts and entertainment section. With the makeover, Folha intends to invest in big illustrations and insert them more frequently on news pages.-
Translated by John Wright
