The field of journalism is suffering. Newspapers are collapsing. We need a new model to deliver the news to the public. Advertising revenues that used to pay for content are no longer doing so. A new model for delivering the news needs to be designed.
“Some people argue that a free society needs journalism in order to educate the electorate and limit the abuse of power. A society without news is both stupid and venal. (Maybe we are there already.) Radical proposals include using public funding to maintain the news media system. Many commentators, however, argue that the news media, like the car industry, should be allowed to fail. If the public doesn’t want to pay for information on the free market, then let it go. Something new will surely take its place.” ~ Ellen Lupton
Note: This site is currently in production.
The concept is a simple online subscription service to receive your news. However, my system differs in that the user my choose which news topics to subscribe to, whether they want local, regional, national, or international coverage coming to them, and they can also choose to “favorite” a journalist, thus getting all stories reported on by that particular journalist. The user pays only the the news he or she actually reads.
This model would operate much like I would like my cable to operate: on a prorated basis. I enjoy getting cable, for the few shows I do actually watch are, in fact, on channels not part of the regular cable package. However, the majority of channels I can do without. So why do I have to pay for the entire package? I should be able to pay for the channels I do watch and not the ones I can go without.
The site employs a simple grid that allows for visual and textual consistency as well as compartmentalization of the various sections of the site. Careful attention was paid to every detail: from the bright color palette of the various category identifiers to the typogrpahy. Helvetica was used throughout for the body content and the headlines are set in FF Meta, a humanist typeface designed by Erik Speikerman.
The end result is an online news vehicle that is a effortless to use, a pleasure to look at and extremely readable.
