“I”: A Newspaper for the Digital Age
Martim Avillez Figueiredo, who launched a new newspaper as if print had been invented after the internet, has joined the programme of the World Newspaper Congress, the global summit of the world’s press to be held in Hyderabad, India, from 30 November to 3 December next.
It might seem crazy to create a new paid-for newspaper in the middle of a worldwide economic recession, but Mr Figueiredo’s “I” is taking Portugal by storm, with circulation increasing 16 percent in the past two months.
The upstart title, launched four months ago, is challenging a mature market with innovation: non-traditional organisation and content; hiring staff through an “I want to be a journalist.com” website; little sharing of content with its sister website; and distribution by bicycle and payment by pre-paid card. [...]
Newspapers are changing in the digital age, and the Portuguese “I” is one of the first true post-Internet papers. Although it has four sections, “they aren’t sections like politics, sports, economy - they follow the reading pattern of people,” says Mr Figueiredo. First comes opinion and commentary. The second section, called Radar, includes small summaries of the day’s news. The core section, called “Zoom”, provides in-depth articles on important subjects. And the final section, called “More”, is a mélange of everything, including sports.
The website does not reproduce the paper but provides aggregate news from many sources, includes a You Tube-like area, and has a social network feel. “The paper and online content are completely different because we are targeting different audiences,” says Mr Figueiredo.
The company hired staff through an “I want to be a journalist.com” website, starting with 1,350 candidates and choosing and training 18 to join a seasoned staff of 55 journalists. It sends teams of distributors around restaurant districts at lunchtime hawking the newspaper, and is building distribution machines that will use prepaid cards.
“The idea is not to build a new daily paper but to try to build a new media brand,” says Mr Figueiredo.
