The future of journalism: Page design

Forgive me if I'm a few years late with this, but like other media commentators, I have plenty of opinions to offer up about the future of journalism.

Page design is an area of newspaper production that is close to my heart. As I am applying for page design jobs across the Northeast, I am continually thinking about what place this career will be in in 25 years.

I was once asked in an interview where I thought journalism would go in the future. Though I was interviewing for a reporting position, naturally I offered up my opinion of page design. In short, I told the interviewer that a few decades from now newspapers won't look like today's broadsheets.

Already broadsheet design has incorporated more tab-type pieces. Big, bold headlines, cutouts, multiple refers all over the page, graphics, etc. all dominate many broadsheets.

But 25 years from now, I don't see that trend continuing. In fact, I can see many broadsheets cutting down to tab size and into what Plattsburgh State Journalism Department Chair Shawn Murphy once told me could be pamphlets with QR codes.

As the internet becomes more prevalent in journalism and Twitter-style communication becomes the social norm, readers aren't going to pay for paper and online versions of news.

In an effort to keep the "paper" alive, I can see newspapers adopting a mini newsprint edition with tab headlines, big art, ledes and nut grafs. That's it.

My example isn't flashy or fun, but creating newspapers that look like that could actually benefit those newspapers still kicking around decades from now.

For one, a move like that would keep the actual paper alive, giving old-school crusties something to hold while not boring the newest wave of kids getting interested in the news. Papers would be able to stay papers, not online aggregates.

Secondly, a paper like this would drive online hits, something that papers are trying to do now. By giving a lede and a nut graf, readers can get hooked, making them want to scan the QR code with their smarterphone of the future — which I'm sure will make the iPhone 5 look like a Nokia TracFone.

Thirdly, it gives designers like me a job into the future. Though you'd probably need just one or two people per paper to design a small QR-filled tab, online editions for iPad, iPhone and the Web could still be produced. That means you'd have a QR edition and a regular edition, though that wouldn't be printed per say. To tease to it, papers could toss a QR next to their flags that would bring readers to an online print edition.

Papers could then give away their QR editions for 25 cents an issue. Then they could charge either per story viewed or for an online subscription to both their websites and online print editions. For those with an online print edition already, papers could deliver the QR edition to take on the go.

Do I hope the print product dies? No. But if it must, the QR edition format would be a good alternative. Design would live and cheaper printing costs would give papers more resources to put toward quality journalism and to rebuild newsrooms to what they once were.

The case for women's sports

Women's sports.

For every person who read past the first two words, there is at least one other person who typed in another URL and left this page.

Women's sports have long been the little sister in the sports world — even lower than the weak kid who gets picked last and rides the pine during the pickup game.

The cases made against women's sports don't change: They're boring. The players aren't as strong. They're uneventful.

Women's sports have also received black eyes, like in the Caster Semenya case.

Still, they deserve more of our attention.

As I listened to the women's hockey game between No. 1 Plattsburgh State and Neumann this afternoon, I could hear the lack of excitement surrounding a team that, in all likelihood, will cruise into the Division III National Championship game in Wisconsin later this month. Meanwhile, when the men's hockey team bows out of the NCAA tournament on the road, a section of whatever arena the game is played in will be packed with Plattsburgh fans who rode hours on a cramped bus to return home disappointed.

In the interest of full-disclosure, I covered the women's hockey team for a season and was there when they went to the Frozen Four in Rochester, N.Y., last year. But even there, when RIT won the title at home, the arena was half packed, probably with some fans who would rather have been in downtown Rochester watching the men lose to Air Force.

The title game between RIT and Norwich was full of tense moments and ended with jubilation, as did the consolation game between Plattsburgh and Gustavus Adolphus, which was tied-up with a late goal with less than 10 seconds left and ended in overtime. It would be hard to find someone there who was not as pumped up as he or she would have been at any men's game.

Women's sports can be exciting, just as they can be boring. But the latter holds true for men's sports, too.Take the 2011 BCS showdown between No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Alabama that ended 9-6.

But what women's sports have that men's sports don't are the fundamentals. While the men are taking deep three-pointers and tossing up failed alley-oops, the women are working toward a high percentage shot. While the men are busy crashing each other into the boards, the women are looking for the next pass up the ice and setting up the scoring rush.

Don't get me wrong, I love the smashing style of the NHL and the acrobatics in the NBA, but when my 8-year-old wants to learn something about how to actually play the game, he or she will be going to the women's game and the men's game.

It's true that women's sports are slower. But that can only help the young players watching from the stands follow the play. That helps young players develop the analytic-style they need to flourish in the game down the road.

The fact of the matter is, women's sports have value. Often they provide free or low-cost entertainment and can help younger players learn about the game.

But until people break down the stigmas they have, women's sports will continue to be the butt of sports jokes.