The newspaper industry has embraced the Internet in an attempt to attract younger readers. Research has shown that young people do not buy newspapers, but they do read news online. 

The online version of The Daily Telegraph, which includes articles from the print edition as well as web-only content, breaking news, podcasts and blogs, has a web audience 14 years younger than its elderly print readership. (The average age of the Telegraph print reader is 55, whereas the online Telegraph reader has an average age of 40.)  

The Telegraph has lost sight of its core brand tenets in the rush to embrace new technology (e.g. Telegraph Television, an online video on Demand Television service.) The media consultant Kim Fletcher has described The Telegraph’s editor Will Lewis as ‘a managerial figure, producing this branded multimedia offering that is called the Telegraph’. 

The Guardian has invested heavily in its online presence. Guardian Unlimited involves the audience in generating and prioritizing content. The front page of Guardian Unlimited is the starting point for the reader to navigate the online content. 

Online newspapers offer more interactivity. The Guardian launched Cif (Comment is Free) in March 2006 as a group blog to expand Guardian/Observer comment, build an online community and encourage online participation. 

The large amount of celebrity-focused content on Mail Online has generated traffic to the site.  Mail Online is the UK’s largest newspaper site with 44 million visitors in July and the only newspaper brand to increase its number of monthly visitors. 

The Times’ brand is not consistent with its sister paper, The Sunday Times. The papers are different in style, tone and content. This brand inconsistency is in part due to the fact that the papers are selling a multi-media experience. The Times pay wall has driven off online readers, whilst Mail Online has a more successful business model built around advertising revenue. 

Newspapers have made the move online to extend their brands and attract younger readers to offset the decline in print readership.  Brand Environment was invited to rebrand Saudi Arabia’s premier, progressive newspaper Al Watan. Our challenge was to retain Al Watan’s existing readers whilst attracting a younger audience, and reposition the newspaper within the Al Watan media group. 

With about 60 percent of Saudi Arabia’s population below the age of 25, Al Watan newspaper needed to expand its readership in this young target audience and connect with their media usage habits.

We assisted Al Watan newspaper in its redesign and helped to ensure the Al Watan media group offered a consistent brand experience across its offline and online editions. Consistency comes from knowing what your brand truly stands for, and ensuring the tone, language and style of the print Al Watan and digital version are the same.

Here are our designs for Al Watan…