research / brand strategy / creative direction
The Dallas
The Dallas
Morning News
“Acknowledge the right of the people to get from the newspaper both sides of every important question." - G.B. Dealey
The Client:
The Dallas Morning News is an historic newspaper serving North Texas since 1885. With diligent reporting, rigorous fact-checking, and engaging writing across breaking news, local politics, business, and entertainment, the paper (now available online and in print) connects North Texas residents to the information they need to understand and explore their community.The Situation:
Over the past four years the paper has seen significant and steady decline in unaided awareness, and an increasingly negative Net Promoter Score, especially with regard to trust-worthiness and relevance. However, this decline in trust is not specifically a Dallas Morning News problem. As the social media landscape evolves, and misinformation becomes harder to identify, people are increasingly more hesitant to engage with news, to the detriment of connecting our communities.
The Solution:
Sometimes big change comes from small realizations. I spent time conducting focus groups with people in and outside of the Dallas Morning News organization, combing over surveys, finding trends, looking at the world around us. But ultimately, the most impactful learning came from the building itself.
"Acknowledge the right of the people to get from the newspaper both sides of every important question."
A quote from G.B. Dealey that lives on at the Dallas Morning News reminded me of the idea of perspective. Perspective is Power. Knowing what is happening in your community empowers you to be an active participant in it. Shaping your perspective helps you to become a more well-rounded individual. And ultimately, your local paper is your best resource to cultivate and develop your unique perspective. That became the basis for the new campaign for the Dallas Morning News, one built on the foundation of their unique ability to inform the North Texas perspective.
My creative partners took this new brand strategy and ran. Ideating on how perspective, hyper-local reporting and a need to increase trust in news could manifest, the team landed on this idea of connection. What does it mean for North Texas to be connected? How does each distinct neighborhood talk and feel? How do we, as the Dallas Morning News, speak the language our audience is speaking?
The answer: hold a mirror up to their home—local photographers, local people, and a simple message: This is Home.
The answer: hold a mirror up to their home—local photographers, local people, and a simple message: This is Home.
“This is Home” became a rallying cry. It connects us. It connects us to each other, the land, our community, and our shared values. The Dallas Morning News is a vehicle for understanding, exploring, and ultimately belonging in the North Texas community.
But home isn’t always one thing. The Dallas Morning News produces several special editions a year to cover ongoing topics or rare phenomenons, so we stretched the tagline to create space to talk through the celestial, the difficult, and the emotionally charged, always through the North Texas lens.
But home isn’t always one thing. The Dallas Morning News produces several special editions a year to cover ongoing topics or rare phenomenons, so we stretched the tagline to create space to talk through the celestial, the difficult, and the emotionally charged, always through the North Texas lens.