[thelist] Content Publishing Systems Squash News Design

Martin martin at members.evolt.org
Tue May 21 15:01:11 CDT 2002


Jay wrote:
> [snip]
> [watch wrap]
> http://www.editorandpublisher.com/editorandpublisher/features_columns/articl
> e_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1484602
> [/watch wrap]
> [/snip]
>
> quote...
> "The typical content management system offers "layout tools, not design
> tools." He says that template page creation offered by content
> management
> systems will seldom suffice from the designer's perspective; they can't
> offer anywhere near the page-design capabilities of software tools like
> DreamWeaver (for Web pages) or Quark Xpress (for print)."

Hm. Generally once a publication's style (in any given medium) is set,
designers don't get much control over it - a choice of templates, a bit
of
typography, but little else.

And in the newspaper world? Almost none (and yes, I've worked in
pre-press on major newspapers - zero creativity permitted. The closest
designers came was in production of information graphics)

The article says:
"That's quite a change from the "old days" when Web content was hot and
money was being thrown at figuring out how to present stories on the
Internet in innovative ways."
Yes, that was the sign of an immature industry which didn't know what
worked - what got people reading

Now in the case cited, yes, it probably is a bit limiting that the whole
group's publications are delivered to the same few templates. But that's
a management decision, so that's where the blame lies. If management
won't permit the development and implementation of multiple templates to
reflect the sub-brands of each publication, take your whining to them.

The article says:
"Programmers often balk at requests to set up multiple templates, and to
make the templates flexible enough to satisfy designers' requests."
No, programmers balk at doing more work than is possible within the time
and budget allowed. If designers don't understand what's possible within
the time and budget, that's their problem.

Sounds to me like it's a branding led decision anyway: "We don't want
all these sub-brands. From now we will be consistent". A very typical
(if short-sighted) play for a new conglomerate.

Actually, the article says so:
"the goal was to emphasize Real Cities and realize economic savings
across the network -- this is akin to creating a new radio or television
network "
There you go - parent brand at the expense of existing sub-brands and
"Ryan defends the uniform multi-site design, saying that the old way of
maintaining unique Web sites at each newspaper was simply not
financially viable any longer if the company expected to make its
Internet operations profitable long term."
Exactly. Paying for design on multiple publications? Can't afford it.
Paying for design on a page level on multiple publications?  *Really*
can't afford it.

Besides, isn't this a bit of tail trying to wag dog? Do the readers of a
publication give a rat's ass how the precious designers feel? Unless
you're a boutique design publication, no. Do the owners? Clearly not.

Naturally, the author has a very mistaken concept of who is the tail and
who the dog:
"As more of the industry moves to sophisticated online publishing
systems, more attention should be paid to design flexibility. These
publishing systems and network-wide efficiencies should not be allowed
to wag the dog."

Sorry, designers, if you think you're the dog in a publishing
environment, then frankly you need to grow up a bit.

Actually, from a business point of view, reducing the work of the
designer in the production flow has major advantages:
1) Increased Speed
2) Reduced Cost (not least the cost of designers, as well as the
opportunity cost of the time spent)
3) Reduced risk of producing something off-brand
4) Reduced levels of ego

Throw a designer into the workflow of a daily newspaper (*especially* a
multi-edition one) and it will start falling over very soon.

Cheers
Martin

_______________________________________________
email: martin at easyweb.co.uk             PGP ID:	0xA835CCCB
	martin at members.evolt.org      snailmail:	30 Shandon Place
   tel:	+44 (0)774 063 9985				Edinburgh,
   url:	http://www.easyweb.co.uk			Scotland




More information about the thelist mailing list