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1 | THE EVOLUTION OF PUBLISHING MEDIA |
This chapter discusses:
■ Media proliferation
■ The twentieth-century press barons
■ Design in the golden age
■ The influence of magazine design on newspapers
■ Directing design
■ The evolution of modern magazine design
■ Media diversification
■ Advertising and revenue generation
■ Media transitions
■ Creative directors and digital media agencies
■ Media groups
This chapter will provide you with an introduction to the development of the modern media industry. It describes the influence of the press and the role of individual newspaper proprietors during the twentieth century and how design has become a key element in the success of media products. It examines the symbiotic relationship between editorial and advertising, as well as the key developments in technology that have led to the current trend for multimedia, convergent titles. Background knowledge of how the media industry has been consolidated into large groups and organisations that produce and distribute multi-platform media will help you understand the media areas and work practices you may encounter during your career.
‘The new electronic interdependence recreates the world in the image of a global village.’
Marshall McLuhan, author and philosopher
‘Design, in its broadest sense, is the enabler of the digital era – it’s a process that creates order out of chaos, that renders technology usable to business. Design means being good, not just looking good.’
Clement Mok, designer and digital pioneer
The media industry
From Gutenberg in the fifteenth century to websites in the twenty-first century, the key to successful media has been the union between technology, communication, education and visual presentation. Most modern media have their origins in the nineteenth century, when the combination of wealth generated by industrialisation, coupled with the introduction of compulsory education, created a mass market for newspapers and magazines. The journey from the era of print to the digital age has taken over two centuries, through years that have seen, and are still seeing, great historical upheavals and many profound social changes. The period has also included great scientific advances and the development of technologies that were once regarded as radical and groundbreaking, only to be supplanted by further innovations. Print, cinema, radio and television all, at one time, commanded the mass audience that has now switched to the Internet.
Design has always been at the centre of media development, and when it is combined with financial acumen, clever technology and the right moment in history, the visual style of a title can come to embody an era – and make a fortune for its producer. This has come from taking an approach to design that does not just regard it as making things look nice, but as a fundamental aspect of how the media industry unites technology and functionality with art and literature. All design must function in the context for which it has been created, and it is known that well-designed titles present content in the best possible manner to attract readers, viewers, visitors and advertisers. Understanding how the publishing industry has evolved will help you to gain an insight into the structure of the industry and the application of media design.
Media proliferation
Britain, from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, built one of the largest and richest empires the world has ever seen, controlling, at its height, almost a quarter of the globe and a quarter of the world’s population. Victorian and Edwardian newspapers and magazines had an enormous readership and were widely distributed throughout the UK via the newly constructed railway network, as well as being dispatched to distant parts of the British Empire. The average Briton at this time would have had many sources of information, from local papers run by an editor–proprietor to nationally distributed titles with print runs in the hundreds of thousands. The growth in newspaper and magazine publishing carried on from the mid nineteenth century to the 1920s, and the period has become known as the golden age of print.
The key developments in mechanical printing 1790–1950
| 1790–1838 | 1840–1879 | 1880–1949 |
1798 Lithography
Invented by Alois Senefelder 1804 Iron printing press
Invented by Earl Stanhope 1810 Foundrinler papermaking machine
Invented by Nicolas Robert 1810 Steam-driven printing press
Invented by Friedrich Koenig 1835 The rotary web press
Invented by Rowland Hill 1837 Chromolithography
Invented by Engelmann and Lasteyrie 1837 First photographic Image
Taken by Joseph Niepce 1837 First electric printing press
Invented by Thomas Davenport 1839 First photographic printing process
Invented by Louis Daguerre | 1847 Rotary drun printing
Invented by Richard Hoe 1853 Negative/positive photography
Invented by William Fox Talbot 1860 Commercial line block process
Invented by Paul Pretsch 1860 First rotary offset litho machine
Invented by William Bullock and John Walters 1860 Colour separation
Developed by James Clerk Maxwell 1861 First colour photograph
Taken by James Clerk Maxwell 1879 Uthographlc mechanical tints
Invented by Benjamin Day | 1881 Trichromatic halftone process
Invented by Frederick Ives 1886 Linotype typesetting machine
Invented by Ottmar Mergenthaler 1886 Point measurement system
Based on a unit of 1/72in (0.3527mm) 1886 Halftone engraving process
Developed by Frederick Ives 1887 Monotype typesetting machine
Invented by Tolbert Lanston 1890 Rotary lithographic press
Developed by Hippolyte Marinoni 1904 Three-cylinder litho offset press
Developed by Ira Rubel 1948 Colour flatbed scanner
Invented by Hardy and Wurzburg 1949 Type photosetting
Developed by Rene Higonnet and Louis Moyroud |
Prior to the introduction of radio and ci...
