AMPERAGE Marketing & Fundraising

One-Minute MarketerWhy Don’t Newspapers Use More Graphics?

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Why Don’t Newspapers Use More Graphics?

Let me start with, “I don’t know.” It’s my rhetorical question of the day.  My email inbox, my Twitter feed and my Facebook feed are full of graphs, infographics, pie charts and diagrams, but my multiple newspapers are still most gray with copy.statosta-graphic-of-food-from-mexico

The New York Times does have some spectacular graphics in their electronic edition, but they are super complicated to produce and have layers of movement and clickable engagement—hard to produce daily. USA Today does do a good job of visualizing more stories, but limit the charts to one section of each page.

For example, with all the talk about a tax for goods crossing from Mexico to the US, there have been hundreds of articles written, but here is one graph that sums it up better than hundreds of words.

So what’s my point? Well, when you see a media trend in multiple channels that are growing, you go with it. Just like McDonald’s did with breakfast (it was not the first fast-food retailer to offer breakfast). Graphic journalists are helping to tell complicated stories in quick, simple ways. There is still room for a long, well-written article, but for those who don’t want to read the entire article, give them a chart that still communicates. And, graphics will help de-gray your paper and make you look a little more trendy.

Written by:

Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle. After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant. He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.” Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.” One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College. Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board. Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.