March 7th, 2009
I’ve been meaning to blog this for several weeks (oops, “blog” is now a verb!).
I recall clearly that in the early days of the Web that Martin Nisenholtz at The New York Times supervised the creation of a series of engaging graphics that struck me as emblematic of what online newspapers versions could do that print versions could not. Many were interactive; all were involving.
In the last month or so I’ve seen a modest return to this excellent mold.
Emblematic of this is something I would have to categorize as ironic. Titled, “Mostly Gloom for Glossies,” it illustrates the often dramatic drop in paid ad pages for some of America’s most prominent magazine titles.
The small amount of text accompanying the interactive feature makes the point: “Another day, another closure. Magazines are becoming thinner as advertising pages fall, and publishers are grimly cutting underperforming titles. But the outlook is not dour for all — a handful of magazines are still expanding their ad lineups, some by startlingly high percentages.”
The interaction is not sophisticated but it’s direct and effective. It brings the point across better than words in the paper could do.
Check it out.