Great design in the Potterverse

Visitors at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Hollywood. CREDIT: Valerie Macon/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images via The New York Times

Best fake newspaper that I’ve seen today. Kudos to the creatives at Universal Studios on the design of the Daily Prophet, the newspaper of record in the Potterverse. To me it looks very Mirror-ish or Nail Mail-ish from the ’50s or ’60s. At least this is what I think they would have looked like.

The photo accompanied a New York Times opinion piece. You can read it here.

News Worth Knowing

The media group that I work for is rolling out a “Worth Knowing” campaign with this ad in their newspaper markets (Atlanta, Ga.; Dayton, Ohio; Austin, Texas; and West Palm Beach, Fla.)

Notice the use of “Real”? Subtle way to say we’re not fake news.

The “Worth Knowing” campaign will appear in print ads, commercials, email and social media campaigns. The label will also appear on packaging and even bills.

UPDATE: On the INMA (International News Media Association) site, by Amy Chown, Brand Marketing Lead, Vice President of Marketing at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The strategy focuses on the strength and value of local journalism.

Read all about it here.

And our readership survey says …

… that most people still prefer newspapers. No surprise from a poll by the National Newspaper Association. I suspect this handy artistic is something that the ad sales staff can carry around to bolster their calls.

However, look at the revenues generated by newspapers versus the others and you’ll see a different story, and that’s the entire problem with newspapers.

Let’s do a quick Google. And we find this:

SOURCE: marketingcharts.com

Full disclosure: I’ve won several journalism awards from the National Newspaper Association. No hard feels.

Bezos misses the mark

Jeff Bezos has advice for the news business

Ask people to pay. They will pay.

Well….. they will pay for quality, but they won’t pay for crap. I think the fact that the Washington Post hired 140 more reporters after chopping away the newsroom for so long has something to do with why they’re doing so well.

 

 

 

 

 

The New York Times is officially b**-s*** crazy!

I somehow missed this story at the end of May, but WHAT THE WHAT!!!

A snip from The Washington Post blog:

Our goal is to significantly shift the balance of editors to reporters at The Times, giving us more on-the-ground journalists developing original work than ever before.

As a former copy editor I can attest, and I’m sure that most other former and the few remaining copy editors will agree — most reporters can’t write. They can report, but they  don’t know jack about grammar and the rules of writing. They don’t know the difference between there and their, pane and pain, etc… and don’t me started with its and it’s.

This is not going to end well. If I was a copy editor at The NYT, I’d be applying for a job on the corrections desk. I have a feeling it’s going to become very busy.

 

The newspaper business is not your safe place

Some advice for recently graduated college types who are looking for work.

Curiously, this retired newspaperman thinks that “Aspie-types” as in Asperger’s Syndrome, used to prevail in the newspaper business and should avoid it now.

I’m not sure about that, but anyway this is still a fun read. Head on over to the Good Men Project.

 

 

 

Journalism in this country

Check out the trailer:

Newspaper Pioneers: The History of the North Dakota Press

 

Too bad the folks in the trailer are not identified, but the gent who says that the media in this country isn’t the Washington Post or the New York times, it’s the small papers in North Dakota is 100 percent correct. Small newspapers make up the bulk of newspapers in the US; from mom and pop operations to mid-sized newspaper groups, all are community minded.

I suspect that a film like this could bee made in any of the states.

I hope that the entire film will be online one of these days.

Historic D-Day Front Pages

My good friends over at ClickAmericana have posted some front pages from June 6, 1944.

Considering the security surrounding the invasion and the limitations of gathering, reporting and producing the news in this era, I’m surprised that many of these papers were able to supply their readers with detailed reporting including the graphics.

It would have been an amazing night in the newsroom to get these out.

Head on over to ClickAmericana for more of them