The San Antonio Express-News has changed up its front page, saying it needs to reflect the reality of readers being "more informed, more wired &emdash; and yes, much more busy taking it all in."

There's an "interactive" graphic online that briefly explains the changes.

"Change comes today with a new format designed around two key goals. First, we are providing readers with a larger menu of items, allowing the front page to be a better window into the rest of the paper. Second, we're doing more to emphasize and develop our best story of the day, focusing as much as possible on local news you won't find anywhere else."

And here, from Paul Wallen of the San Diego Union-Tribune, is a Q&A with Dean Lockwood, design director at the Express-News:

From the home office in San Diego, the Top 5 questions about the new San Antonio Express-News front page:

5.) There seem to be three central ideas in the new Express-News front page format: A pair of rails that you're calling "zippers," a "tab on broadsheet" emphasis above the fold and a promo at the top that focuses on selling one inside story in a big way, rather than a variety of inside content. Can you provide some background on each of these changes and the goals behind them?

Those are the key themes. The promos were an easy call -- our promos the last few years have been weak mainly because too much junk was being shoved into them -- too many topics and too many words. The more stuff in there, the busier they got and they less effective they were. Really, the promo should be viewed as a kind of advertisement. So our new promos will feature a single item, strong. They also won't follow any kind of template. Other than general font choices, it will be a different approach every day. Adrian Alvarez, who joined the paper midway into the front-page development process, took the lead on the new promo looks. He's really brought a fresh energy to them.

The zippers (these things just gotta have goofy catch names, I think) were a challenge. We've never been a "rail paper" but with the new emphasis on the web and multiple "hits," we knew we'd have to get on board with this in some form. Honestly, I started playing with two narrow rails just for the novelty -- I don't think anyone else is doing it. (Hmm … perhaps there's a reason for that?) At first it was just to see if I could make it work visually. But as I played with it, it started making more sense. We gave each zipper it's own mission. The left one is basically our hard news briefing while the right one is a bit of a catch-all. A home for the "fun" news stuff, utility info like sports scores and, of course, online promotion. That all worked itself out pretty easily. Designing the news between the zippers was a bit more of an adventure, and it produced an unexpected benefit.

The whole "tab on broadsheet" thing was an unexpected result of flanking both sides of the page with the zippers. I found I couldn't design the 1A lineup the same way -- with semi-strips, "muted" lead stories and all those other compromise things we do to parse the play of the news each day. The zipper format started forcing me into making a commitment to one or maybe two items up top. A bit like a tabloid makes a choice on its story of the day. The more I thought about that, the more I thought that was a good thing. We're a broadsheet, of course, so we have room for a few more stories. But in general, we're going to try to emphasize our best local story strong up top each day. Adrian Alvarez really gave me the confidence to really push this.

4.) You have been prototyping published lineups in preparation for launching the new format. What kind of challenges did you face as you went through that process?

Between myself and Adrian, there was a good bit of prototyping. And you know what? It was HARD. Much harder than I thought it would be. All the "rules" for designing a broadsheet front just didn't seem to work. It really is like desiging in a different page format. The biggest thing we noted was the need to go relatively simple and clean on the down-page stories. There's just so much "stuff" on this page that we're really cognizant of the junk factor. We'll have to watch that a lot.

3.) What kind of flexibility has been built into the new format to handle different types of news days or breaking news?

Well, our flexibilty was tested on the very first night -- got live, very vertical art -- naturally, something we hadn't prototyped! Maybe not quite the package I would have liked to have wrestled with on the first night, but I think we pulled it off. Beyond that, the whole idea of "zippers" was for flexibility. One or both can zip down to accommodate big news play. Other papers have similar policies for their rails. My best, unintentionally funny quote came while trying to explain what sorts of news would warrant lowering the zippers: "Castro dies -- zippers go down." Yes, I said it. In a room full of editors. Took me a good 10 seconds to figure out what all the smirking and snickering was about.

2.) Does the new format represent any changes in content and editing, or is it strictly a change in how the front page is being packaged for readers?

It calls for a lot of changes in thinking, mostly. Especially about our 1A lineup -- and about what constitutes a "lead story." A traditional broadsheet format provides lots of compromise possibilities for editors. This format (as with a tabloid) forces us to make a commitment. That's very different thinking. The zippers provide a logistical challenge for our copy desk. They've reorganized to have a page one editor dedicated each night to focus on the lead package and the zippers info.

1.) And the number one question is … The opening statement in your users guide describes this as "the most fundamental format change in modern Express-News history – way bigger than Wingo." What is Wingo, and what kind of impact has it made on the Express-News?

Hah! That's an inside joke. In fact, I'm not sure if some of our younger designers will even have a clue about that. Years back, when this was a two-paper town, the Express-News was locked in a death match with the San Antonio Light. Wingo was a bingo-like game that was promoted brazenly on the front page. Tacky as all get-out -- but apparently it worked, as the Light eventually went down for the count.