USA Today is Like an Offline Micro-Blog
Social media expert Chris Brogan shares an interesting observation – he noticed that USA Today looks kind of like an offline version of a micro-blog. He marveled at the paper’s ability to scale down to essential, quick data points, and says he’s been motivated to possibly re-design his site based on USA Today’s example. It may seem odd getting new ideas from such an “archaic” thing such as a newspaper, but it goes to show – you never know where inspiration will strike.
Brogan explains:
If you squint, and remove your “purist” filter, USAToday looks like a microblog. The paper has little bite-sized media bits, easily consumable, with nuggets of data that are useful and fast to absorb. CNN Headline News does the same thing. They work the short form news format, with fast info, quick data dumps, and as they are trying out lots of personable interactions, it’s even turning a bit two-way. (Not that long form is bad, and there should definitely be a place for lengthier journalistic work, but as a consumer, I believe we’re trending more towards the short info.)
Recent Articles By Dan Gould 
Dan is an information omnivore, autodidact and creative generalist who has written for publications including the Huffington Post, Jaunted and Time/CNN. Dan has also provided commentary on trends for media outlets such as Wired and Parade magazine.
Comments
| TOPICS: | Advertising, Branding & Marketing, Design & Architecture, Media & Publishing, Web & Technology |
| TAGS: | Chris Brogan, Information Design, Micro-Blogging, newspapers |
Daily Ideas & Inspiration Email