Uncomfortable newspaper brands

Irish newspapers (and their journalists) have long had an uncomfortable relationship with the web. One very interesting aspect of this is how they portray their brands online. While American papers (below) have the confidence to use their actual brand names, Irish papers (above) still feel they need to dissociate the “real” paper from the less “real” online incarnation with an online version of their brand.

My advice to Irish newspapers: cut the crap. For better or worse, paper newspapers are dying and the future is online. Follow the lead of your US counterparts and embrace the web (with your brand and with your content). Change is coming and it’s better to be part of it than to be left behind.