Role of Design in Newspaper Design

Introduction

Newspaper is a publication which it main function is to report news. Most newspapers contain information for readers such as a weather report, television schedules, and also listing of stock prices. They also provide commentary on current politics, economics, and art and culture. In most cases newspaper depends on commercial advertising for their income at various degrees.

By the time readers see or read a newspaper, most of them have already learned of the breaking news through television or radio. However, they rely on newspaper to provide details on information and analysis which was rarely offered by the television or radio. Newspaper does not only inform readers but also help readers to understand what led up to the event and how it will affect the world.

As a common practice newspaper are normally printed on inexpensive off-white paper known as newsprint. The earliest recorded way of informing a public of certain news was Roman 'Acta diurna' by Julius Caesar posted daily in public places. The earliest known newspaper was published in Beijing in the 8th Century; handwritten, it was named 'Kaiyuan'. In the beginning, this news form was given free to the public; in 1556 the Venetian government posted the 'Notizie Scritte' where readers had to pay a small coin, the 'Gazetta'. Newspaper as known today, come with advertising, political, economic and social news emerged in Britain in mid-18th century.

The major factor contributing to the early development of the newspaper was the invention of a printing press. The first printed newspaper was published in 1605. The oldest newspaper still in circulation, 'Post-och Inrikes Tidningar' of Sweden began its publication in 1645.

Some of the most prominent newspapers in the world are The Times, founded in 1785 by John Walter, Daily Telegraph, and the Daily Mail. The first American Daily, Pennsylvania Packet and General Advertiser made its first appearance in Philadelphia in1784. Alexandra Hamilton was among the founders of the New York Post (1801), which is the oldest newspaper in United States with continuous daily publication. In 1835 the New Herald, launched by James Gordon Bennet, was famous for its foreign news coverage. The New York Times founded in 1851 by Henry J. Raymond achieved its worldwide coverage and circulation. these was made possible with the rotary press. In Asia the leading newspapers include Renmin Ribao (Beijing) Asahi Shimbun (Tokyo) and Singapore the Straits Times. Asia, In Malaysia the oldest newspaper is the Straits Times launch on 1845 in Singapore.

In 1982, USA Today was published as a new national paper throughout the United States, Europe and Asia by using satellite transmission and color presses. With the invention of the telegraph, which make rapid gathering of information possible where the news agencies such as Reuters in England, Agence France-Presse (AFP) in France, Associated Press and United Press International in United States sells their services in providing latest news, photograph and graphic news.

The era of modern newspaper begins in the mid of 19th century, with the industrial Revolution, and increased capacities for printing and distribution. The newspaper industry has largely move to a higher-quality, four-color process, offset printing from letter press printing. Desktop computers, word processing software, graphic software, digital camera and digital prepress and typesetting technologies have helped the newspaper to revolutionize its production process. These technologies have enable newspaper to print color photograph and graphics and with innovative layouts and better design. With the help of more new software the designer are able to design spectacular pages in half the time, and make changes, when necessary, in minutes instead of hours.

In 1990s newspaper had become more visual than the early 1980s. There were many variables that contributed to this growth. More and better offset printing helps to increase competition in media, digital scanning and Photoshop.

In general, most modern newspaper is in one of these three sizes:

Broadsheet: 600mm by 380mm commonly associated with intellectual newspaper,

Tabloids: 380mm by 300mm is half the size of broadsheets and often perceived as a sensationalist newspaper.

Berliner of midi: 470mm by 315mm commonly used by the European paper such as Le Monde in France, La Stampa in Italy and The Guardian in United Kingdom.

Brief History of New Straits Times

Known as Malaysia's oldest newspaper, the weekly to newspaper eight-page newspaper (initially founded by the Armenian Catchick Moses with assistance from Robert Carr Woods) first published July 15, 1845 as 'The Straits Times'. A weekly circulation (Every Tuesday) priced at 10 sen of less than 200 copies were printed.

The name was changed to Daily Times in 1858 went it was published daily as an afternoon paper. In 1883, Daily Times reverted to its original name The Straits Times reestablished as the New Straits Times in 1965. It served as the only broadsheet format English language newspaper in Malaysia until September 2004 when a tabloid version was published concurrently with the traditional broadsheet. In April 2005, the newspaper ended its 160-year-old tradition of broadsheet publication by solely publishing the tabloid size.

How has newspaper design changed over time?

In 1450, Johann Gutenberg invented a screw printing press adopting the idea from the wine press used since the Roman Empire. This invention has enable information and knowledge to be widely spread which was previously restricted to religious institution. Aloys Sefenelder of Bavaria developed a new printing process called lithography in 1796, it is consider as the father of offset machine. In 1875, Robert Barclay and John Doyle Fry invented offset lithography to print onto tin for production. After Gutenberg; a gradual evolution in newspaper changes can be seen. From 1891 to1896 William Morris' Kelmscott Press published books with most significant graphic design and made a very lucrative business of creating books of great stylistic refinement and selling them for premium. Kelmscott Press mounted the significant reaction to the poor state of graphic design. Morris work, along with the rest of the Private Press movement, influences art nouveau which in directly responsible for developments in early twentieth century graphic design in general.

Newspaper Front Page Design

According