What's most important?

I have been working on a new web site for journalists at weekly newspapers, and I got to thinking about what was the most important point to remember about design and layout for newspapers.

At first, I settled on the grid. If journalists understood how to use a good grid system, their pages would immediately improve, even if they received only reporting training in college. Then I thought, no, it's typography. If they understood even the basics, their pages would improve. But no.

I went through the rest -- white space, color, photos, info graphics and such -- but I ended up where I always do: content.

Ultimately people read newspapers for content. I have heard that the work of a good typographer is mostly invisible to the reader. In a sense, it is even that way for the designer; well, most of the work anyway. Sure, it's good to "surprise" the reader on those special pages. but most of the paper consists of pretty straightforward element placement and packaging.

In that sense little has changed from when we talked about newspaper "makeup."

Make it easy to access, easy to read, pleasurable if you can, and you have done well.

Because good design springs directly from content (I like to call it design morphogenesis), good design can't be done before content, so therefore content has primacy, i.e., content is the most important component of good design.

Watch for my weekly newspaper design site and blog in the coming months.