Dr. Mario R. Garcia, CEO and Founder, Garcia Media

In the age of TV and electronic media and media fragmentation, what is it that differentiates a good content/editorial offering and gets a reader to pick up a copy and read it? It is design and visual appeal. Media are competing with each other for visual appeal. Anurag Batra met up with design guru Dr. Mario Garcia who was in India recently to give a makeover to the weekly newsmagazine from the Malayalam Manorama Goup, The Week, to make it more contemporary and appealing to a younger audience. If the last few issues of The Week are any indication, Dr. Garcia’s efforts seem to have succeeded: The Week is definitely looking good, whether it’s the cover design or the inside pages.

Trained as a journalist, Dr. Garcia is strongly committed to the idea that content is what determines the success of publications and websites; his work and teaching is based on his WED philosophy, of combining writing, editing and design as basic principles for effective communication of ideas. He has devoted more than 30 years to redesigning publications, and has personally collaborated with over 450 news organizations. He has been involved with large design projects such as The Wall Street Journal, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Handelsblatt and Die Zeit.

Dr. Garcia has also been a journalism professor, starting from his alma mater, Miami-Dade Community College. From there he became professor of graphic arts at Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications (1976-1985), and the University of South Florida (1985-1991). Excerpts from his interview:

Q. How do you evaluate what are your fees for a design assignment?

It varies from assignment to assignment. It depends on the scope of work. Having said that, I charge a basic fee which in India would be say $ 50,000 and plus plus. The involvement from me and my side is very deep and involves a lot of hand-holding.

Q. Is this your only experience with publishing in India?

No, I have had two more experiences. I did some work with Hindustan Times almost one and a half years back. I am also currently working with The Hindu group.

Q. Does design and/or redesign make a difference to a publication?

The attention span of the reader is very small. A magazine or website has to visually appeal to the reader or surfer. Let me give you an example. Through the years we have seen from reader surveys that most readers no longer read the table of contents. So, give direction and lead-ins to them on the cover. Rails of stories with page numbers on them do very well on the newsstand. Traditionally, editors have been wary of this, thinking the reader will read the cover teaser about a big guy, read the page number, turn to the page inside, read the article and put it back on the stand. To our surprise we found out that very few people actually do this.

Q. What brings you to India now?

I am here to advise The Week on design and it’s a long drawn process. It’s a very involved process where the top management, the editor and the editorial team have to get fully involved. It’s not about doing a one-time grid. The journalists have to understand and imbibe it on a regular basis and we are hand-holding that process. We are encouraged by the results. I had last year advised the Malyalam Manorama newspaper and this assignment is the second one I have been entrusted with.

Q. Can you tell us about a case study where the design work you did worked big time?

I can give you many examples but I would like to talk about The Wall Street Journal. It was a dream project. I always wanted to do it. WSJ is an icon. We did this work in early 2002. Initially the readers were a little surprised but eventually they loved it. Our objective was to make sure the basic or core design and brand values were preserved. We helped create a colour palate which could help the reader in navigation. We helped bring in a new section called ‘Personal Journal’. The readership went up. It made a difference and it worked.