Some day I'll tire of the cheap tactic of using song lyrics as headlines. Maybe.

Anyway, the next in what seems to be a trend of making weekend front pages more billboard-like is The Birmingham News. Scott Walker, Senior Editor/Sunday, sends word that they're set to launch a new Sunday A1 this weekend. Here's last Sunday's front in the old (left) and new styles.

Scott says:

We've been producing live prototypes alongside our regular edition for the past month and have already tested some on the street.

We're expanding our promos in an effort to hook people with strong visuals, a clever headline or a couple of carefully crafted paragraphs. The number of traditional front-page stories that jump will decrease, but we'll be highlighting a wider variety of stories throughout the paper.

The primary mission in our market is to capture more single-copy buyers. We also think larger promos will help point regular readers to the best content that may otherwise be overlooked in our sizable Sunday edition. We want to show the richness of the Sunday paper so readers feel that they are investing their time and money in something of value.

Our promos are flexible in size and shape depending on news and what we're offering inside, but the emphasis will be above the fold.

College football is huge here, and our Sunday fronts during the fall will play it big. Our new weekly college football section will be the biggest addition among changes we're making throughout the Sunday paper.

Senior designer Rick Frennea, page one designer Napo Monasterio and consultant Tony Sutton have all contributed to the effort.