Hey, Mark, I was wondering when you were going to notice this one - but as a fairly recent new daddy myself, I understand how things slide! (The redesign actually hit May 28, and I noticed it on the newsstand on June 2, since we still get the Saturday Star on paper here in upstate NY.)

One thing you can't tell from the PDFs is that the transition to a narrower web is going rather slowly. The first few copies I saw of the "new" Star were printed on the older size, which, at 50", isn't exactly "wide" to begin with. I'll have to remember to look on Saturday to see if they've adjusted the presses by now.

The new Star lost some of the distinction of the old one - the white-on-blue notched-end nameplate, for one thing, which had been a Star staple in the 70s, fell out of favor in the 80s, then returned a decade or so ago. It looks very much like the Hamilton Spectator now, which wouldn't mean much unless you live in or around Hamilton, I suppose.

One detail that's not clear to me, since we only get Saturdays on paper here, is what's become of that very distinct Sunday edition the Star was doing a few years ago. Remember that - it was printed on heavy white paper, and took a very magazine-style approach to its design?

Maybe I am of a different mindset where a redesign needs to look like a redesign, but, the changes are so subtle, that it's hardly noticable (to the untrained eye, perhaps?).

Personally, and professionally, however, I feel that the former design had more personality, more white space, and had a better flow. This new one seems denser (with the exception of the sports page), and like the previous commenter, seems to be moving from its heritage?

Again the changes are so subtle it seems like they would have been wiser to not make a change unless it was a drastic one.

the reason probably why it looks dense is that it has reverted to the center alignment for section flags. In a time when the trend is "decentering" of section flags and borrowing of more magazine formula, the star has reverted to previous newspaper design technique. It even flaunts the narrow paper by using condensed fonts as opposed to having a much more horizontal appearance. I think I like the previous design better, but I guess they have to redesign because they have resized. Why can't they just suit the old design to the new size and if they want, make some minor adjustments.

In regards to the Sunday Star, they seem to have used the occasion of the redesign to quietly pull back a bit on that front. The Sunday paper looks a lot more like every other day of the week now, with stories on A1 instead of a big magazine style front, and it also no longer seems to be printed with colour on every page, which must have been kind of expensive and tricky to do. It's still a lot better than the old Sunday Star used to be though

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