Survey says…print and paper

ACCORDING TO A RECENT SURVEY, “70 percent of Americans, including 69 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds, say they prefer to read print and paper communications than reading off a screen.”

The survey was commissioned by Two Sides, the fast-growing non-profit organization created to promote the responsible production, use and sustainability of print and paper. So, it may be a bit self-serving (hmmm…wonder if that’s ever happened before!). Still, there are some findings that may be of interest to those of us who know newspapers are not dying.

It also says 68 percent of those surveyed believe that paper records are more sustainable than electronic record storage and that paper is more pleasant to handle and touch than other media (67 percent).

Here’s the full report.

Worth breaking my own rule

AS MANY OF YOU KNOW, this blog until recently was focused on my commenting on page submissions from reader/subscribers. After thinking it over for some time, I decided to take the blog in a different direction.

But occasionally I receive page that’s just too different to not post. This is one of them. The page comes from Kristin Coker at the Times and Democrat in Orangeburg, SC.

FROM KRISTIN: It has been awhile…I have a page that I hope you will like because you inspired it.  I do know how much you like negative space. For this page we had a few pictures that were kind of ho-hum. Thankfully, the page was faith-inspired and I loved the headline my editor gave me to work with. It gave me the idea  to form a cross on the page and to leave everything else white. A few people thought I lost my marbles when they saw it run off the press—until they got that it formed a cross. So hopefully, everyone else will get the idea and like it, too?  What do you think?

FROM ED: I think it’s different and appealing. Not too sure about the use of the swirly-thingies above the headline, though. I think they may call too much attention to themselves. A question: Why are the headline and drop head in purple? Another question: What does “anchoring” have to do with the story? Not sure I get the meaning. Those points aside, I like it!

How about the rest of you? Would you have had the moxie to try this? Would your editor/publisher have hyperventilated about all the negative space?

Jump in with your comments.

Best of College Design: Magazine

AS PROMISED last week, here is the third (and final) installment showing winners from the Best of College Design pages I recently judged.

Last week was Opinion pages, the previous week, front pages.

These are index pages from college magazines.

Some interesting/exciting stuff. Print design is doing very well, thank you.