The Trends.
288 newspapers from 26 countries participated in the 9th European Newspaper Award. Prominence was given to such features as tabloid, magazine, concept, visualization, and mainstream.

From the results of the 9th European Newspaper Award the followings trends can be deduced:

Tabloid. The trend towards the tabloid format has meanwhile become a dominating force in the newspaper business. In Austria this handy format has been popular for more than 100 years now,  a representative example being "Kleine Zeitung" ["Small Newspaper"].In Switzerland it is the free dailies that favour it. Only in Germany the change towards a smaller format comes rather reluctantly, one of the exceptions is "Frankfurter Rundschau".
But it seems to be only a matter of time when German newspapers which still appear in the Nordic format will decide for the Berlin or tabloid format.

Colour. Coloured spaces are still rare to be found, but the improvement in the technology of colour prints will certainly result in a higher procentage of pastel-coloured spaces in the future. Good examples in this respect are the newspapers "Eleftheros Tipos" from Athens  and "De Morgen" from Brussels.

Service Boxes  and Infographics. Service boxes, on the other hand, have become very popular. They often accompany the lead article and contain facts and figures or interesting and important details. Also infographics are frequently employed, as can be seen in "The Mayo News".

Photography. Still trendy: large photos and a reduced number of photos per page.

Fonts. Europe's creative versatility allows each newspaper a font of their own. A trend towards a retro- design has not yet come into view, but, instead, a number of surprising solutions.

Magazine-like Papers. This term has been coined by the European Newspaper Award and was initiated by Scandinavian tabloid-format newspapers whose pages with their broken-up layout and lots of white space  bear a strong resemblence to magazines.

National Specialties. There is a north-south-divide that reaches from Scandinavia to the Iberian peninsula. Scandinavian design is world-famous for its clarity which is also mirrored in their newspapers. Their Iberian colleagues in the newspaper business have a preference for the tabloid format with poster-like front pages and an examplary design on inside pages.
Germany, Austria and Switzerland are halfway up the league table. They, in comparison, lack in those creative details as extreme photographic sizes or sharp photographic cuts that add more spice to the overall design.
Great Britain's design in the news section is quite conspicuous. The news pages are very appealing to the readers.
The Yearbooks. So far seven yearbooks focusing on the concept and design of European newspapers have been published. From volume 8 on the winning pages will be published as PDF documents on CD-ROM. Orders can be made via www.newspaperaward.org.
The trend towards tabloids.
The yearbook of the 6th competition demonstrates a higher speed towards changes than in previous years. The trend towards a tabloid format is obvious. The focus is on  the categories front page, sectional front page, infographics, supplements and the Athens Olympics. With over 500 illustrations it serves as a useful manual for the editorial staffs. Newspaper Design 6, 140 pages, softcover, ca 550 illustrations
ISBN 3-00-017171-1, € 26 (Sfr. 40)
The magazine-like newspaper. Since many newspapers in Europe have changed to a tabloid format a clear trend towards a magazine-like layout has become discernable. A typical example is the weekly  Presso from Helsinki (Finland). The yearbook contains 20 chapters with ca 650 illustrations presenting the trends and offering the newspaper makers the possibility of comparing their own products. The book is a supplier for creative ideas.
Newspaper Design 7, 180 pages, softcover, ca 650 illustrations
ISBN 3-00-020119-X, € 35 (Sfr. 56)

The author

Norbert Küpper has given more than 80 newspapers a new design. His clients come from Germany and Austria, as well as from the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Belgium, Italy, and the Netherlands.

In 2007 he redesigned the German newspaper'"Mindener Tageblatt" and the two Polish daily newspapers '"Express" and "Nowocsi". In the spring of 2007 he gave the advertisement section of the German newspaper group WAZ a new design.

Contact:
Tel:. ++49 21 59 / 91 16 15
eMail: nkuepper@zeitungsdesign.de
Website: www.editorial-design.com