How accessible is the print newspaper?

Like I talked about last week, I love print media but definitely think the print newspaper warrants a more in depth discussion on not only its future but its accessibility. I consider myself a very able-bodied person, and if I can’t get behind the 10 point type justified into columns the width of a fingernail, I’m not sure who can. Older folks who are used to reading the classic newspaper design? People with X-ray vision? 

You get my point. But there’s a lot more that goes into the design of a newspaper (or any print media, really) than people think. To start, “justified” text alignment is very traditional for a newspaper – it’s basically when the words align to both the left and right ends of a column, creating a super clean look for column layouts. But justified text is also the most difficult to read; “flush left ragged right” text that lines up on the left and creates a jagged shape on the right is easier for us to read – our eyes can better locate one line of text after another by recognizing lengths of lines and shapes made by the little bit of white space.

Left: “flush left ragged right” text; Right: “justified” text. Courtesy of lumenlearning.com.

So there’s the alignment of text, but what about text itself? Fonts and font families can squander readability in a heartbeat and must be chosen carefully. Half of my education here at Stevens as a Visual Arts and Technology student is learning about typography and what makes a successful usage of it – it’s that important. For the most part, I think newspapers are doing well with typography. Headlines and body text are usually in classic and readable serif typefaces, which I don’t think needs any improvement. Modern lettering can be saved for magazines and more creative print work. 

There’s a whole lot more to unpack here. In terms of text styling, alignment and font are just a few examples of what needs to be considered: there’s letter spacing, line spacing, text color, text size, hyphenated words, all caps, and a lot more.

But I don’t think newspapers are the place to get experimental in surface-level design (how the design looks) but rather how the design works. Newspapers are about transferring information from one group of people to the next. They’re about sharing ideas, opinions, and facts. And the current system may work for a lot of people, but how can we believe that everyone sees the same thing when they look at a newspaper? What do women see? What do people of color see? How do these populations and others interact with the print newspaper? What about the blind?

I don’t think there’s one simple answer as to how we can redesign the print newspaper to cater towards all the unique needs of specific populations. But there’s definitely things that can be improved. Here’s a few of my ideas as I speculate about what print news will look like in 50 years time:

What if all newspapers had a scannable QR code that opens a digital summary of that specific newspaper? This would exclude populations without access to a smartphone, but it’s an idea. It might be an option for including blind people in experiencing a print paper, if there was an option to have the digital summary read aloud.

What if we had pads we stuck to our fingertips, that we could use to graze over newspapers with a specially designed tech-paper? The pads would have to have some features, like reading aloud words or translating information into different levels of understanding.

Will A.I. be generating newspaper layouts? What if every single printed newspaper had a differently organized front page? How would that affect public consumption of news?

Will the concept of the 700 word article be gone? What if all news was reported in bullet points, in the form of Instagram graphics?

Obviously these are big and somewhat unrealistic ideas, but starting big might be the only option. Don’t get me wrong, print newspaper design has come a long way, from black and white pages filled to the brim with text to beautifully designed layouts and data visualizations. But I ponder if there can be a more radical change, a more radical movement in print newspaper dissemination and design. Information gathering is changing drastically with the Internet – why is the print newspaper not?

The Stute Editorial is an Opinion column written by the current Editor in Chief of The Stute to address and explain editorial decision making, discuss news and media issues, and develop a sense of trust and transparency between readers and members of The Stute.