Can the Fosbury Flop inspire newspapers to make it better?

In October 1968, with The Beatles' Hey Jude topping the charts, Dick Fosbury topped the Olympic field in Mexico City where he took the gold medal and set a new Olympic record at 2.24 meters (7 feet 4.25 inches). I'm fairly sure that Dick wasn't the 5th Beatle but there is a common thread that I never saw until last week. Let me explain. While in Liverpool for Outlook 2010: INMA-OPA Europe Conference, I expected to hear about The Beatles and I wasn't disappointed. I got the full Fab Four immersion between visits to The Beatles Story museum and the famed Cavern Club. Great fun. It was also a reminder of how John, Paul, George and Ringo changed music, fashion and culture for more than a generation. What I didn't expect was to be reminded about another agent of change who revolutionized track & field with a simple twist. Dick Fosbury was a skinny American athlete who revolutionized the high-jump event with a back-first technique that made him a world champion and changed the sport forever.

Dr. Wolfgang Bretschko, President of INMA Europe and Director of Styria Media Group AG, told the story of the Fosbury Flop to suggest to the crowd of news media executives that small changes can sometimes yield dramatic breakthroughs. His theme was clever and memorable but even Dr. Bretschko did not anticipate that within a couple of hours we would witness a Fosbury Flop on the very stage where he spoke.

Peter Bluijs , a veteran of De Telegraaf in Amsterdam, played a 2 minute video (below) demonstrating his prototype for a "vertical newspaper". Like Fosbury, Peter's simple twist was to turn the newspaper on its side and make it easier to handle on the train, the bus or at the kitchen table. Think of it as a paper laptop. Peter's idea is simple and brilliant - just like the Fosbury Flop. The INMA-OPA audience erupted in applause for the idea. Will Peter's innovation change the fate of newspapers the way Fosbury revolutionized the high jump? As always with newspapers, there are probably production issues, workflow challenges and a thousand other reasons why this simple idea is too difficult to make happen. Still, I hold out hope that it inspires some newspapers to embrace innovation and listen to The Beatles advice in Hey Jude: "...Then you'll begin to make it better better better better better better...".