Chartistry on the Portfolio web site

The Society of Newspaper Design web site has a nice Q&A with Zubin Jelveh, who has a column on the Conde Nast Portfolio web site called “Chartistry” that attempts to explain economic and business issues through the use of charts.

In the Q&A, Jelveh said, “Chartistry fits in this mold in that 1) It lets us try a style of reporting that we hadn’t seen elsewhere, and 2) It allows me to combine my two strengths: economics and multimedia.

“The essence of the column is to present economic news and concepts in a visually appealing and — eventually — interactive way. Looking around at how other outlets cover economics — and in my opinion most of them do a fine job at it — we felt that with a field so rich in data, there were a lot of untapped opportunities to give readers a place to go where they can make connections at a glance, while also providing some context for those who wanted to go deeper.”

Later, he added, “My primary short-term goal for Chartistry is to incorporate reader interaction. To start with, one of the pieces next week will allow readers to navigate through different charts according to their interests.

“Ultimately, I’d like to reach a point where in some columns readers will be able discover information about themselves and see where they fit in within the larger group.”

Read more here.