They are usually at the end of the day’s edition, a mass of small type that nobody pays much attention to inside the newsroom.
However, in some cities, readers await eagerly for the newspaper to come out order to check the classifieds and find that precious new job, house, or car. Not to mention a new pet or soul mate.
The ‘status’ of classifieds has raised considerably in the past few years. It is rare to be asked to even look at the classified section of a newspaper during a redesign project. But now, no project is complete without taking a look — and making efforts to improve — the classifieds.
Where does one start?
1. Make sure that the typography of the section harmonizes with (or is identical to) that of the rest the newspaper.
2. Section headers should match the rest of the paper. It is useless to create a new section header for classifieds, when it appears between the business and sports sections. Why reinvent the section and create typographic cacophony?
3. There must be a complete and easy-to-read navigator, an index that describes each content section of the classifieds and where to locate it, either by letter, number, or page number.
4. Icons can help make locating each area easier, but they are not the only way to achieve this. Sometimes clear use of type can do it just as well: antiques, pets, for example.
5. Allow a bit of white space between categories, since this falls under the category of “finger reading” wherein readers search for information here and there, and DO NOT read an entire page. This is selective reading. The eye and the finger moving together to reach a certain destination on the page.
6. Finally, select a font for the text of small ads that is very easy to read, since we know that it will always be a sea of type with few illustrations, and the reader will have to struggle his way through it to get to the desired information.
Classifieds are a vital part of the newspaper1s content, and it is good to know that today they are also integrated when newspapers redesign. It’s about time.
–All or a portion of this column was originally published in the IFRA newsletter.
