Can art save print media? Award-winning newspaper designer thinks so

Jacek Utko addresses the Arab Media Forum.

DUBAI: Bold, artistic newspapers that take inspiration from magazines will stave off the death of print media, award winning newspaper, magazine and web designer Jacek Utko said at the 16th Arab Media Forum in Dubai (AMF) Tuesday.
This year’s AMF brought together 3,000 media figures, academics and experts to discuss a range of topics related to the media in the Middle East.
Utko, who has won the ‘World’s Best Designed Newspaper’ award from the Society for News Design four times, shared his views on how to save newspapers from the rise of digital media.
Two newspapers he recently redesigned — Het Parool from Amsterdam and De Morgen from Belgium — were recognized as European Newspaper of the Year in 2015 and 2016.
Having redesigned a number of flagging newspapers across the world, Utko believes the key is in the format.
The newspaper should “almost be on the edge of art,” he said, adding that he looks “for inspiration in magazines.”
Utko shared his view that the 19th century format of text beneath a headline is “dead” and encouraged newspaper designers to think outside the box by using bold, innovative visual layouts.
“There are many new ways to tell the story, such as listicles and graphics, using numbers to organize information and bitesize chunks of information which are easy to digest,” he said.
Calling for image-led pages replete with “challenging and witty” text, the designer stated that to engage readers, they must “lose the sense of where the article ends and the infographic begins” and added that the all-important cover page should be “intelligent with a sense of humor” in a bid to make readers think.
In recent years, media experts across the world have warned of the so-called death of print media as digital readership increases around the world and information-hungry consumers gain access to free, breaking news at the tap of a finger.
However, Utko believes newspapers can rise to the challenge if editors realize that they cannot compete with digital media outlets in terms of reporting on breaking news due to the sheer speed at which it can be reported online.
To circumvent digital media, he said, newspapers should be published less frequently and present in insightful, in-depth commentary on well-designed pages complete with powerful imagery.
“We will see a lot of newspapers dying in the near future” unless they can change the traditional model, he concluded.