Newspapers are dying for a few reasons. Readers don't want to pay for yesterday's news, and advertisers follow them. Your iPhone, your laptop, is much more handy than New York Times on Sunday. And we should save trees in the end. So it's enough to bury any industry. So, should we rather ask, "Can anything save newspapers?"
報紙逐漸沒落,原因有很多。 讀者不再想要付錢閱讀昨天的新聞、以及廣告。 你的 iPhone 手機,你的筆記型電腦 都比週日的紐約時報還來的趁手。 而我們還要拯救森林、少砍樹木。 因此,這些理由足以埋葬任何一個產業了。 所以我們倒不如問:到底還有什麼可以拯救報紙嗎?
There are several scenarios for the future newspaper. Some people say it should be free; it should be tabloid, or even smaller: A4; it should be local, run by communities, or niche, for some smaller groups like business -- but then it's not free; it's very expensive. It should be opinion-driven; less news, more views. And we'd rather read it during breakfast, because later we listen to radio in a car, check your mail at work and in the evening you watch TV. Sounds nice, but this can only buy time. Because in the long run, I think there is no reason, no practical reason for newspapers to survive.
未來的報紙可能有幾個不同的情境; 某些人說,報紙應該要免費; 它應該像小報一樣,甚至更小;像 A4 般大小。 它應該是本地的社區報,由社區經營; 或者利基型的專業報,發行給如商界的小型團體 但是那就不會是免費,而且非常昂貴。 有人認為應該是輿論導向; 少一點新聞,多一些觀點。 而且我們寧願在吃早餐時看這些報紙 因為接下來就會在車上聽廣播 在辦公室收 e-mail、晚上回家看電視。 這聽起來不錯,但這只是拖延時間罷了。 因為長期來說, 我認為沒有理由、沒有實際的理由 讓報紙能夠存活下來。
So what can we do? (Laughter) Let me tell you my story. 20 years ago, Bonnier, Swedish publisher, started to set newspapers in the former Soviet Bloc. After a few years, they had several newspapers in central and eastern Europe. They were run by an inexperienced staff, with no visual culture, no budgets for visuals -- in many places there were not even art directors. I decided to be -- to work for them as an art director. Before, I was an architect, and my grandmother asked me once, "What are you doing for a living?" I said, "I'm designing newspapers." "What? There's nothing to design there. It's just boring letters" (Laughter) And she was right. I was very frustrated, until one day.
那我們可以做什麼? (笑聲) 讓我跟你們說我的故事。 20年前,Bonnier,一家瑞典的出版商 開始在前蘇聯集團國家推出報紙。 在幾年後,他們在中歐與東歐已經發行了幾份報紙 這些報紙的經營團隊大都沒有經驗 既沒有視覺文化的概念,也沒有預算執行視覺藝術。 在很多地方甚至連美術總監都沒有。 我決定 — 以美術總監的角色跟他們工作 在那之前,我是一個建築師。我祖母有一次問我, 「你靠什麼在賺錢過活?」 我說,「我設計報紙。」 她說「啥?報紙沒有東西好設計啊?它只有一堆無聊的文字罷了」 (笑聲) 她沒有錯。我一度非常沮喪,一直到有一天,
I came to London, and I've seen performance by Cirque du Soleil. And I had a revelation. I thought, "These guys took some creepy, run-down entertainment, and put it to the highest possible level of performance art." I thought "Oh my God, maybe I can do the same with these boring newspapers." And I did. We started to redesign them, one by one. The front page became our signature. It was my personal intimate channel to talk to the readers.
我到了倫敦,看了一場太陽馬戲團的表演 突然有了啟示。我想: 「這些傢伙掌握到了一些怪怪的 退流行的娛樂形式, 然後把它變成最高水準的表演藝術。」 我這樣想:「天啊,也許我也可以在這些無聊的報紙上做同樣的事情!」 於是我就做了。我們開始一份一份重新設計。 報紙封面變成我們的簽名。 它變成了我跟讀者之間的私密頻道。
I'm not going to tell you stories about teamwork or cooperation. My approach was very egotistic. I wanted my artistic statement, my interpretation of reality. I wanted to make posters, not newspapers. Not even magazines: posters. We were experimenting with type, with illustration, with photos. And we had fun. Soon it started to bring results. In Poland, our pages were named "Covers of the Year" three times in a row. Other examples you can see here are from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and central European countries.
我沒有要告訴你團隊合作的故事 我的作法是非常自我中心的。 我想要的是我的藝術宣言, 我對現實的詮釋。 我想要製作海報,而不是報紙。 甚至不是雜誌;是海報。 我們試驗各種字體, 搭配插畫、搭配照片。這樣作很好玩。 很快,這些作法開始有一些效果了。 在波蘭,我們的報紙被提名為 「年度封面」長達三年。 你可以看到的其他的例子包括 拉托維亞、立陶宛、愛沙尼亞 — 一些中歐國家。
But it's not only about the front page. The secret is that we were treating the whole newspaper as one piece, as one composition -- like music. And music has a rhythm, has ups and downs. And design is responsible for this experience. Flipping through pages is readers experience, and I'm responsible for this experience. We treated two pages, both spreads, as a one page, because that's how readers perceive it.
但是這不只是關於封面而已。 秘密在於我們如何對待 整分報紙如同一件作品 就像是一個創作,像音樂一樣。 音樂有節奏,有高低起伏 設計負責帶來這種體驗 翻閱報紙是讀者的體驗 我對這樣的體驗全權負責。 我們把兩面的開頁當作是一個頁面來處理 因為這是讀者所感受到的體驗。
You can see some Russian pages here which got many awards on biggest infographic competition in Spain. But the real award came from Society for Newspaper Design. Just a year after redesigning this newspaper in Poland, they name it the World's Best-Designed Newspaper. And two years later, the same award came to Estonia. Isn't amazing?
你可以看到某些俄國的頁面得到了很多獎項 在西班牙的最大的資訊繪圖競賽中脫穎而出 但最棒的獎來自於「報紙設計學會」。 僅僅在重新設計波蘭的報紙一年後, 它就被提名「全世界最佳設計的報紙」 兩年後, 愛沙尼亞也得到同樣的獎項。 這很神奇吧?
What really makes it amazing: that the circulation of these newspapers were growing too. Just some examples: in Russia, plus 11 after one year, plus 29 after three years of the redesign. Same in Poland: plus 13, up to 35 percent raise of circulation after three years. You can see on a graph, after years of stagnation, the paper started to grow, just after redesign. But the real hit was in Bulgaria. And that is really amazing.
真正讓這變得神奇的是:這些報紙的發行量 也成長了。 讓我舉一些例子: 在俄國,一年後增長了 11% 重新設計三年後增長了 29% 同樣在波蘭:增長了 13%,到達 35% 三年後發行量獲得提昇 你可以從這幅圖表看到 在數年的停滯後,報紙開始增長 在重新設計之後。 但是真正的成功發生在保加利亞 真的讓人感到驚奇
Did design do this? Design was just a part of the process. And the process we made was not about changing the look, it was about improving the product completely. I took an architectural rule about function and form and translated it into newspaper content and design. And I put strategy at the top of it. So first you ask a big question: why we do it? What is the goal? Then we adjust the content accordingly. And then, usually after two months, we start designing. My bosses, in the beginning, were very surprised. Why am I asking all of these business questions, instead of just showing them pages? But soon they realized that this is the new role of designer: to be in this process from the very beginning to the very end.
設計造成這樣的改變嗎? 設計只是過程的一部分。 我們所啟動的進程,不只是改變外觀而已 它是關於完全地改進產品。 關於功能與形式,我採用建築的規則 並且轉化成報紙的內容與設計。 我在整件事頂端加上策略 所以一開始你問自己一個大問題:我們為什麼要作改變?目標是什麼? 然後根據這些目標調整內容。 然後,通常在兩個月後,我們開始設計。 我的老闆,一開始的時候非常驚訝。 我為什麼要問一堆商業運作的問題, 而不是就把設計好的頁面交出來算了? 但是很快地,他們理解到這是設計師的新角色 從產品的一開始到結束,設計者都參與其中。
So what is the lesson behind it? The first lesson is about that design can change not just your product. It can change your workflow -- actually, it can change everything in your company; it can turn your company upside down. It can even change you. And who's responsible? Designers. Give power to designers. (Applause) But the second is even more important. You can live in a small poor country, like me. You can work for a small company, in a boring branch. You can have no budgets, no people -- but still can put your work to the highest possible level. And everybody can do it. You just need inspiration, vision and determination. And you need to remember that to be good is not enough.
所以這個故事帶給我們什麼教訓? 第一個教訓是,設計不只能改變你的產品, 還可以改變你的工作流程 — 事實上,它可以改變你的公司裡一切事物。 它可以把你的公司翻過來 它甚至可以改變你自己。 誰的責任?設計師。 將權力交給設計師。 (掌聲) 但是第二個教訓更為重要。 你可以像我一樣,住在一個貧窮的小國家中, 你可以為一個小公司打工, 在一個無聊的部門。 你可以沒有預算、沒有人手 但是你仍然可以作到最高水準的演出 每個人都可以這樣作。 你所需要的只是靈感、視野與決心。 而且你需要記住:成為「好」 光「好」,並不夠。
Thank you.
謝謝各位。