What lessons could the Independent learn from Portugals i?
As the Independent prepares to bring out its new daily, i, what lessons could it take from its namesake in Portugal? After an €11m launch in May of 2009, the national Portuguese daily already has a place among the serious press – although sales have slipped recently. Like the new British newspaper, Portugal’s i was charged with tapping an unserved market – a young generation used to getting its news from the internet and 24-hour rolling TV news. The innovative Portuguese paper has pulled off some tricks that any launch editor of a digital-era newspaper might wish to study. First off is the size. Portugal’s i is a mere 35cm by 25cm (not much bigger than a magazine), and is held together by staples. “The idea is that it can be read by commuters without it falling apart,” says its editor, Manuel Queiroz. It reorganises news, recognising that the previous day’s news stories – covered in short bites in a busy, graphics-rich, web-inspired section called Radar – are often already familiar to
