Newspaper design: why publishers invest in print to deliver attention for readers and advertisers

That endurance is no accident. Publishers continue to invest in newspaper design, not just to make pages visually compelling but to give advertisers the best possible context: their audience’s time, trust and undivided attention. The latest design awards show how far that investment has gone – and why it matters more than ever.

Publishers keep betting on newspaper design

Every year, the European Newspaper Award reminds us that newspapers remain a living, breathing medium. Presented together with the European Magazine Award at the annual European Publishing Congress in Vienna, the prize has become a key moment for recognising design excellence. Now in its 26th edition, it drew more than 3,000 print submissions from 22 countries. The jury – journalists, academics, designers – noted the growing importance of white space, the rise of data journalism, and the surprising resilience of e-papers and podcasts. The message: print is still innovating. The winning projects are collected in a beautifully designed booklet, Trends 2025, which documents current trends and offers inspiration to publishers and advertisers alike.

The winners show how. Dutch Trouw, crowned Europe’s best nationwide paper, was praised for crisp political coverage and magazine-style layouts. White space, infographics and photography make complex issues clear – and at the same time give advertisers a stage where their messages feel part of a trusted environment.

Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, named best weekly, takes a different tack: a relaxed weekend read mixing lifestyle, travel and science. Readers linger. On average, 116 minutes. For advertisers, that is not just dwell time – it’s dwell time in the right state of mind.

Design awards set the standard for publishers and advertisers

Across the Atlantic, the Society for News Design (SND) offers another measure of print’s strength. Its annual Best of News Design Creative Competition, one of the industry’s most respected, attracted nearly 5,000 entries this year. The goal behind the awards is to identify the best visual journalism, data visualization, and storytelling that propels innovation and defines the highest standard in the industry.

The Dutch daily De Volkskrant took home the prize for world’s best-designed newspaper, praised for “virtuosic” use of grids and visuals. Politico Europe won too, with bold art direction and conceptual illustrations. Trouw and de Volkskrant are both Dutch newspapers from the media group DPG. At the recent magazine award Sabato, the magazine of the Belgian newspaper De Tijd, also won – making the Low Countries true winners and underlining their deep commitment to design excellence. Both titles show that publishers who invest in design are not simply dressing up the news: they’re building an environment where stories – and adverts – cut through the noise.

Print gives readers – and advertisers – lasting attention

Philosopher and journalist Maarten Doorman, writing in NRC, reminded us what makes print unique. The broadsheet front page is the product of 250 years of refinement: a sheet of paper held half a metre from the eye, perfectly matching the field of vision, delivering hierarchically ordered information at a glance. In 30 seconds, you see and understand more than in minutes of digital scrolling.

And then there’s the experience itself. No pop-ups. No endless feeds. Just white paper, ordered news and the calm authority of layout. Deadlines force editors to decide what matters most – and that hierarchy of information benefits readers and advertisers alike. Ads in print are read in a reflective state of mind, not skimmed past in the chaos of a feed.

Newspaper design: the best context for advertising

For publishers, design excellence is not cosmetic. It’s strategy. A clean layout, smart use of space, a well-paced mix of words and images: these are choices that help readers stay with the page. And they are the same choices that make advertising work harder.

Investment in design delivers twice. It creates a product that readers trust and return to daily. And it offers advertisers the rarest of commodities in today’s market: an audience paying attention, in exactly the right frame of mind.

In an age where most digital impressions vanish in seconds, newspapers prove that careful design still buys what money can’t usually buy: time.