...which you designed along with quite a number of other German language newspapers. You have re-created the "FTD" completely from scratch. A chance you seldom get, right?
Yes, that's right. Newspaper design means mostly a cautious overhaul. Like when a neighbour asks you to work on his living room and refurnish it a little more intelligently: Like the newspaper reader, he does in fact hope for a couple of improvements, but at the same time he wants a lot of the important things, the familiar things, to remain at their regular positions.   
 

 
   Mr Kircher, do you remember the first newspaper you held in your hands?
That would be the Austrian Kleine Zeitung. It's published in Graz and Carinthia in my old native country. The format is just slightly bigger than a postage stamp and the look to date hasn't changed except for a couple of new type faces. These days, I like to read the International Herald Tribune. And the Financial Times Germany.   

   Why use design experts like you then?
On one hand, we put better emphasis on the newspapers' strengths. This is nothing you'll cause turmoil with at the newsstands, rather comparable to model upgrading. The Berlin Tagesspiegel for example was a little old-fashioned and graceless; the design simply didn't look significant. We've changed this by using a more playful typography, new colours and a liberal visual language. On the other hand, if a newspaper doesn't sell any more it's all about radical alterations. Frankfurt's Sunday paper, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, which only used to be available locally in the area, was a boring ugly duckling living in the shadow of the mighty regular daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . We turned the whole place upside-down altering its market position, design and structure.
    Is design really that important? The readers want information, contents anyway.
Both are inseparable. In Germany design is often seen as simply prettying up. In the US the concept is perceived quite differently – a fusion of the object's function and its appearance. No matter if it's a garden hose or a newspaper.
    Do newspaper designers actually think as hard about weight and thickness as they do about type faces and colours?
For instance, we test the feel of a newspaper and put together dummy issues, test copies, in varying paper quality. It costs a lot of money to use quality paper. However, it also creates such a higher sense of quality with the reader that it can be a valuable investment.
    You think that more German newspapers should be published as “tabloids” in a small format half their size.
Again, people want to be able to see their breakfast table while reading. Those bulky large formats still reflect an elitist approach in Germany.
    But the size, the volume, of a paper is also a statement of its textual authority.
This is complete rubbish from the reader's point of view. The ones defending the large format vigorously are mostly journalists. The only reason for its existence is that England once introduced a tax per page and therefore the publishing houses increased the size of their papers. One of the most interesting newspaper markets in Europe is in Spain. You wouldn't stand a chance with a large format there at all.
    To you, the future of the newspapers is the so-called "daily magazine". What's that?
Newspapers should process less news but design their up-to-date contents in the appearance of magazine stories. Including a more abundant visual language, graphical information and more carefully edited texts.
    But an up-to-the-minute newspaper photo won’t ever be able to match the quality of a lavishly produced magazine picture.
Of course not. But among the approximately 1,500 photos the news agencies are offering the newspapers each day, there's enough excellent material to produce a daily magazine.
    

    Is it actually important for your work to be in Berlin?
You have better access to bright graphic artists, illustrators and photographers. And there are a lot of good journalists and freethinkers you can discuss your new ideas for the paper with.
    If all readers were like Kircher – what would the ideal newspaper look like and what would be there to read?
It would read like the International Herald Tribune and would adopt the magazine design plus the small format of the Spanish paper El Mundo. The great thing about the IHT is that it never leaves its readers guessing. Reading the headline you immediately know what it's about. Then you read the first paragraph and still have learned a little more. As simple as it may sound: Hardly any other newspaper manages that.
    How long will there be newspapers on paper?
I am curious what will happen with these digital displays on foils which are supposed to be ready to go into production within five years. There will still be trendy, strong and high-priced newspapers on paper. Furthermore, there will be quite a lot of free newspapers available in Germany. For the medium-sized gazettes, the large part of the newspapers, however, it'll be very difficult. And by that I'm talking about a development within the next ten years.
    But this process will take decades!
No, it won't. And this is linked with the advertising market. Studies reveal that over the last two years the average reader has spent more time on the internet than actually reading a newspaper. Let this trend go on for another ten years. In a while the advertising industry will notice that the readers have shifted their attention to something else.