It’s time to be honest and say that young people will never convert to reading traditional newspapers. It just won’t happen. We have loyal readers, but they are old people — mostly 60 plus. Old people are major readers of printed newspapers.
They have money and they still want to read. Most of them don’t want to convert to digital. So, we will have them around for a few more decades – and we have to take care of them as a major group of our readers.
But what does it mean to take care of the older readers first? It simply means to remodel the newspaper for them and consider some changes:
- Lesser content
- Logical reading sequence
- Simple — not too busy — layouts with more clarity
- Elements that are not too heavy on design
- Easy to navigate, simple newspaper structure with logical sections
- Easy to read (bigger body text font)
- Higher contrast in typography
- Avoid very light elements that are difficult to read in bad lighting
Think like you are designing a phone with bigger buttons for older people. Make it easy for your grandma! That’s how the new newspaper should look like. It’s imperative to keep the key readers happy.
It’s not a new idea but most publishers ignore it. Nobody cares, nobody faces the reality. They think nothing has changed — like it is being read mostly by 30-40-year-olds. In 2020 it is extremely valid.
