USA Today brings online designs to print edition

USA Today, the second-largest newspaper in America, has decided to adopt a more tech-savvy approach to its print version. Instead of the former layout, which consisted of few colored images, blocks of uninterrupted text and a stereotypical newspaper design, USA Today will almost be doubling the amount of colored images and will also be using color to highlight certain text.

In addition, it has decided that a change to the logo is in order. The globe design feature next to a hard block font has been replaced with a large circle that will feature graphics relevant to current news and more bubble letter fonts.

While the new layout might seem like something fresh and new, one has to wonder how effective it will be in pulling readers in. Most newspapers today have adopted an online version of the paper so that people in this Internet-crazed society will be more likely to read it. USA Today has done the opposite. It has taken a website-based design and applied it to the print paper in order to appeal to the more tech-savvy citizens. It can be assumed that the likeness to the online versions is an attempt to attract younger readers who have grown up clinging to technology.

But how effective will it be? Readers go for the online versions not for different visual aspects, but because it’s so much easier to read news on the go through an iPad or laptop than it is to pick up a giant paper and have to lug it around.

Design, while helpful in attracting readers to that particular paper, will not do USA Today any good if society is already in the process of ruling out print versions.

Of course, there will always be those who are resistant to technology, and for those individuals this may be a welcome change. However, when the youth of today are headed in the direction of technology and what is more convenient, print newspaper is becoming increasingly unpopular. It is far easier to go online via a laptop or iPhone from wherever you are than it is to track down the nearest print copy and flip through it. Not only is the size awkward for casual reading, it also takes time.

If you are going to read the paper you really have to commit to reading it. It isn’t worthwhile to sit for a second and unfold that giant stack of paper, just to read one article you are interested in.

Another person could go online, search the article, read it, and be on their way by the time the first had opened up the print version and found the page where the article is. Well, maybe that is an exaggeration, but nevertheless, print media is no longer convenient in the digital era we live in.

Newspapers aren’t the only thing that has had to take a backseat to online capabilities. People have moved away from books in favor of eBooks. CDs have been replaced by mp3s that are easily downloadable from iTunes and DVDs are facing a similar fate. People are abandoning former mediums of entertainment in favor of versions that are accessible at their fingertips. As technology improves, the popularity of these types of things can only decline.

While the print version of USA Today may have been hopeful for an increase in readers with its new design change, the accessibility of online news is far too great a prospect for most modern readers.

While USA Today might see a few more people interested for now, ultimately technology will win out and the newspaper will be right back where it started, searching for a way to get more people interested in the physical paper.