Gastro pubs, indie rock, New Labour, chai lattes—all are staple ingredients for the hip, middle-class liberal Londoner.
June 21, 2006 (Press Release) --
Gastro pubs, indie rock, New Labour, chai lattes—all are staple ingredients for the hip, middle-class liberal Londoner. However, to really blend at a café in the neighborhoods of Islington or Notting Hill, you need a copy of the Guardian.
In September 2005, the Guardian changed formats and redesigned its brand and layout, marking the first major change to the newspaper in 17 years. The format change follows a trend started by others in the British newspaper market.
The new presses required to print this format allow for much more creative layouts with color throughout the whole publication. Does the redesign live up to the promise?
The Guardian started in Manchester in 1821 and dominated the national left-wing press in Britain until an upstart rival, the Independent, came to the party in 1986. Like the Independent, the Guardian takes strong political stances, especially during conflicts such as the Spanish Civil War and most recently the war in Iraq.
The British newspaper environment, arguably the healthiest and most diverse in the world, is full of publications with distinct characters and readerships. If newspapers were people at a party, the Times would be handing out hors d'oeuvres and checking the furniture for cigarette burns, while the Sun would be at the center of the room dancing on a table with a lampshade on its head; the Guardian, meanwhile, would be huddled in a darkened corner wearing a Greenpeace T-shirt, and dourly complaining about university politics.
The Guardian is accused of suffering from a "holier than thou" complex; the giveaway is in the name. It's an attitude born of benevolence rather than arrogance, but it's an attitude that comes across loud and clear. Monitoring the Guardian's opinion-making is the equivalent of the sordid fascination that comes with watching a car wreck on the highway. A great example is the paper's campaign to have readers write letters to US voters in Clark County, Ohio, expressing their opinions about the 2004 presidential election. The campaign backfired; angry voters wrote back to those same Guardian correspondents with all sorts of anatomically focused suggestions for what to do with their opinions.
Oh, dear.
This ill-fated campaign to "enlighten" American voters and dose them with some British middle-class liberalism was both embarrassing and fascinating to watch. What is surprising, however, is that the paper itself seemed surprised at the reaction to its meddling. It didn't predict that the opinions of a foreign country's newspaper readership may not be openly welcomed—a curious lack of judgment for a paper with a respected reputation around the world.
By being absolutely unmoving in its self-assured opinion-making, the newspaper brand retains intensely loyal readers, those who can be sure that the slant on objectivity will correspond to their own views. Regular readers of any newspaper tend to reach for their chosen publication for confirmation of their own opinions. Relying on a brand for validation of personal opinions—isn't that the ultimate in brand loyalty?
Newspapers, perhaps more than any other products, say more about the brand of the person reading them than the products themselves.
Source: http://search.msn.com
Posted by Jackson Mahr
In September 2005, the Guardian changed formats and redesigned its brand and layout, marking the first major change to the newspaper in 17 years. The format change follows a trend started by others in the British newspaper market.
The new presses required to print this format allow for much more creative layouts with color throughout the whole publication. Does the redesign live up to the promise?
The Guardian started in Manchester in 1821 and dominated the national left-wing press in Britain until an upstart rival, the Independent, came to the party in 1986. Like the Independent, the Guardian takes strong political stances, especially during conflicts such as the Spanish Civil War and most recently the war in Iraq.
The British newspaper environment, arguably the healthiest and most diverse in the world, is full of publications with distinct characters and readerships. If newspapers were people at a party, the Times would be handing out hors d'oeuvres and checking the furniture for cigarette burns, while the Sun would be at the center of the room dancing on a table with a lampshade on its head; the Guardian, meanwhile, would be huddled in a darkened corner wearing a Greenpeace T-shirt, and dourly complaining about university politics.
The Guardian is accused of suffering from a "holier than thou" complex; the giveaway is in the name. It's an attitude born of benevolence rather than arrogance, but it's an attitude that comes across loud and clear. Monitoring the Guardian's opinion-making is the equivalent of the sordid fascination that comes with watching a car wreck on the highway. A great example is the paper's campaign to have readers write letters to US voters in Clark County, Ohio, expressing their opinions about the 2004 presidential election. The campaign backfired; angry voters wrote back to those same Guardian correspondents with all sorts of anatomically focused suggestions for what to do with their opinions.
Oh, dear.
This ill-fated campaign to "enlighten" American voters and dose them with some British middle-class liberalism was both embarrassing and fascinating to watch. What is surprising, however, is that the paper itself seemed surprised at the reaction to its meddling. It didn't predict that the opinions of a foreign country's newspaper readership may not be openly welcomed—a curious lack of judgment for a paper with a respected reputation around the world.
By being absolutely unmoving in its self-assured opinion-making, the newspaper brand retains intensely loyal readers, those who can be sure that the slant on objectivity will correspond to their own views. Regular readers of any newspaper tend to reach for their chosen publication for confirmation of their own opinions. Relying on a brand for validation of personal opinions—isn't that the ultimate in brand loyalty?
Newspapers, perhaps more than any other products, say more about the brand of the person reading them than the products themselves.
Source: http://search.msn.com
Posted by Jackson Mahr
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