Publishing business guru Russell Viers visits <I>The Day</I>

On Nov. 25, 2009, the Adobe Certified Instructor Russell Viers, who also teaches QuarkXPress, met with Den’/The Day’s specialists and shared his high-tech newspaper publishing experience in a two-hour lecture. He revealed some of his professional secrets. After carefully studying this newspaper’s layout and design techniques and talking to staff members, Viers said this newspaper met European standards. At the editorial office he examined the photos on the walls — from The Day’s photo exhibits — and said he was very impressed. He paid special attention to the rural photos reflecting folkways. He was presented with a photo album that includes the best works of these photo exhibits and an English version of the book about the US Holodomor researcher James Mace, entitled Day and Eternity of James Mace.

Russell Viers has been into the publishing business since 1980. Over the years he has gone from journalist and press reporter to an acknowledged expert in the publishing domain. For the past 10 years he has been on lecture tours of the United States and Europe, teaching publishing companies’ personnel advanced software techniques. Among his customers are The New York Times, Metroland Media Group (that comprises over 70 newspapers), Primedia Business Information (50 magazines in the US), and a number of other businesses.

Mr. Viers, how would you assess Den’s professional level, in terms of graphics, layout, and design?

“I have mostly worked with British and American newspapers, but if I were to compare your newspaper to an American one, there would be an essential distinction. US journalists have adopted the standard of cutting down on format and content. Your Den’ still has the standard large format. This is great; this is a refined classical periodical, the good old big format [large format is traditionally afforded by major UK and US periodicals, whereas tabloids stick to a smaller format — Ed.].

“I visited my home town last month and saw that our quality press was like tabloids. Your newspaper has the traditional design. Yet it is clean, so to say. What kind of papers do we see these days? Some are trying to attract the reader with dynamics and photos that jump out of the page at you — something I don’t like personally. Other newspapers prefer the tranquil kind of graphics and transparency.”

During your lecture you communicated with our technical experts. Would you care to comment on their professional level?

“They asked questions and I could see that they are very talented people. Unfortunately, I couldn’t watch them at work, even though I’d love to.”

How do you feel about the prospects of the Ukrainian media market, particularly in terms of progressive technologies?

“Every business must change in order to survive, and so the media market is constantly changing. For example, you have your Web site. Suppose something happens late at night. You can add it to your Web site, briefly stated of course. Now this is already complementation. I can tell you that our US Internet periodicals are of not-so-high quality because for them providing information online comes first. People visit these websites to learn the breaking news and read the printed periodicals to learn more about a given problem.”

How do you visualize the interrelationship between the Internet and printed periodicals? Is there any conflict? Will the Internet editions eventually elbow out the printed ones?

“Has the Internet destroyed books? It hasn’t. In order to survive and compete with the Internet, the printed media must contain information that will make people willing to buy their copies, to make them part with their money. There is Wikipidea, the free Internet encyclopedia, and books you have to pay for. Why should I buy a book? Because this book should have something you won’t find on the Internet. How are the newspapers competing with television? On television they will spend seconds telling you about a piece of news. In a newspaper you find an in-depth story. How are the newspapers competing with the radio? The same is true of the Internet. I think that printed media have a future.”

COMMENTARIES

Oleksandr PISNY, technical editor of Den’/The Day:

“We are thrilled by the quality and capacities of the Adobe product. Few newspapers can brag about being visited by an expert of this caliber and by attending his master class. Our editorial personnel were very impressed by the creative possibilities and automated procedures Russell Viers spoke about. We’ll be learning how to use them in practice.”