The Chicago Tribune launched its long-awaited redesign today. A bunch more pages after the jump.

The SND site has a look into the project in slideshow and video form, and Poynter has a Q&A with Design Director Jonathon Berlin.

There’s Chicago reaction to the redesign from design consultant Ron Reason, and public radio station WBEZ talked with Northwestern’s Jeremy Gilbert and E&P’s Mark Fitzgerald. Chicago blogs Chicagoist and Gapers Block solicited comments from their readers.

And Visual Editors’ Robb Montgomery took his camera out on the streets of suburban Chicago to find out what readers think.

In other redesign news, Mario Garcia redesigned The Oklahoman and the Hartford Courant relaunched with a new design yesterday.

Continue reading "Chicago Tribune Redesign"

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The South Florida Sun-Sentinel launched its redesign today. Charles Apple’s got every detail you’ll ever want to know.

And over at SportsJournalists.com, everyone’s got an opinion.

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The Orlando Sentinel debuted its redesign this morning. Charles Apple’s got images and thoughts.

The Wall Street Journal weighs in with a piece in Monday’s edition. (Tip: if you’re not a WSJ subscriber, go through Digg).

Past experience shows newspaper makeovers don’t necessarily translate into financial success. After the Bakersfield Californian underwent a drastic redesign two years ago, the 60,000-circulation paper in California’s Central Valley saw a small initial jolt to circulation and revenue, sparked by the brighter look and expanded coverage of hot topics like immigration. But the gains have been erased as the area economy struggles. Bakersfield Californian Chief Executive Richard Beene says the steps were necessary to keep the paper relevant, but he has advice for others considering a similar redesign: “Don’t expect it to turn around circulation or revenue overnight. It’s not a magic bullet.”

Consultant Alan Jacobson launched a broadside against the redesign Friday, saying it needed to “concentrate on content rather than cosmetics.”

In these troubled times for newspapers, it’s important to note that “readership” and “revenue” are conspicuous by their absence from virtually all the words that have been published about Orlando’s redesign. Instead, much has been made of the cosmetic changes to come.

And, of course, it wouldn’t be a redesign if somebody didn’t compare it to USA Today.

Update: And Mario Garcia writes about the black reverse nameplate.

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The Chicago Tribune will launch a redesign in mid-September, Editor Ann Marie Lipinski told the staff today.

"We are committed to determining the basic architecture and sectioning of the paper within 30 days; deciding on paging (how many and where) within 45 days; understanding our staffing levels throughout the paper in 60 days; and being ready to launch a rethought and redesigned Tribune within 90 days in mid-September."

Romenesko’s got the full memo.

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Charles Apple has the definitive post on the upcoming Orlando redesign, including a Q&A with Bo Burton, images, the works. So go there.

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OK, here’s a passel of additional before-and-after Orlando prototype pages for the upcoming redesign, again thanks to Bo Burton. More pages after the jump.

Continue reading "More Ado About Orlando"

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The Washington Post debuted a new Style & Arts section on Aug. 26. It’s a merger of two regular Sunday sections.

Deputy Assistant Managing Editor for News Art Denny Brack and Style Design Director Martha Wright created the new design. Martha says:

Changes include enhanced Web keys, better use of color positions, more air on inside pages and the front, and frameless photos. Content is organized under Sounds (music), Stages (theater and dance), Screens (movies, TV, Internet) and Sights (the visual Arts). We've added Robin Givhan as a Sunday columnist, and created a Conversations page, anchored by a regular Q&A. There's also a Studio page, where local artists can explain their pieces in their own words. We'll have a doubletruck each week to showcase the work of staff photographers or take a closer look at other topics that demand that size and scope (normally it'd stand alone — happened to be a jump for our debut issue).

More pages after the jump:

Continue reading "Merging Style and Arts at the Post"

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The Toronto Star redesigned a couple weeks ago. (OK, three. Or so.) SND's Canada blog had some (more timely) coverage here and here. There's a new body face, Torstar Text, which is set at 10.25 on 11, as opposed to the old 9.9 on 10. The paper also will be gradually shrinking to a width of 11.5 inches between August and October. There's an online reader's guide here.

Antonia Zerbisias, the Star's media columnist, solicited some expert opinion about the redesign, including Lucie Lacava ("... less distinctive, more generic. Perhaps 'generic' is too harsh. It's been simplified a lot.") and Tony Sutton (Style: "very, very readable". Content: "... it looks like it's got less news in it.")

Here are some before-and-afters (afters on the right) with thanks to Assistant Managing Editor, Design Charlie Kopun:

More pages after the jump:

Continue reading "Toronto’s New Star"

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Here are some before-and-afters (afters on the right) of the Virginian-Pilot’s new design.

And here are some new inside pages:

Continue reading "Take Me to the Pilot"

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The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk launched its much-awaited redesign today. I'll have a more in-depth before-and-after look later today. Meantime, the SND folks have some of the new pages up.

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The Star-Telegram of Fort Worth launched a redesign on Sunday. They’ve narrowed the web width and turned Page One into a billboard for the rest of the paper.

In the four-page reader’s guide (PDF), Executive Editor Jim Witt writes:

You also need us to respect your busy life. Our quick-read formats will help you zero in on the information important to you, to speed you on your way. We think they also bring a jolt of energy and innovation to the paper.

The typography is Capitolium, Freight Micro, Freight Sans and Utopia.

This seems to be, in some ways, and extension of the paper’s 2004 redesign when the Sunday and Monday front pages became more teaser-oriented.

You can see what readers are saying about the changes here.

Here are some pages from the Sunday and Monday papers:

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The Globe and Mail, “Canada's National Newspaper,” (329,923 daily/416,584 Saturday) launched a redesigned newspaper today, the culmination of a two-year “reimagination” process. Says Editor-in-Chief Edward Greenspon:

We wanted to be smarter, more accessible, more Web-paper integrated and more visually oriented.

Oh yes. And we didn’t want to give up an inch of ground on the qualities (strong reporting, great writing, seriousness of purpose) that have made The Globe and Mail an important part of Canadian society for more than 160 years.

They’ve trimmed the page-width down to 12 inches and commisioned new typography from Toronto type designer Nick Shinn: Globe and Mail Sans, Globe and Mail News and Globe and Mail Text.

They’ve also added a new lifestyle section, Globe Life, shifted business agate to the web and launched ReportonBusiness.com. Here’s the half-page guide to the redesign published in today’s paper (PDF here).

The redesign was an in-house job by a team led by Editorial Design Director David Pratt and Assistant Art Director David Woodside.

Here are some pages from today’s edition, courtesy of Michael Bird, Deputy Managing Editor, Presentation and Editing.

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The Chicago Sun-Times launched a redesigned, more locally focused paper today.

As evidenced by the emphasized "Chicago" in the flag, they're beefing up their local orientation and adding more features such as
"Chicagopedia," a dictionary of Chicago words; "This Much I Know" where "interesting people tell you their secrets to a good life;" and "24/7," a 24-hour crime and mayhem roundup. The Sun-Times has been struggling in the Chicago market. Sun-Times Media's revenue fell 8.6% last year compared with the Tribune's 1.3% drop.

As far as the design, it will "make it more accessible, more modern and more readable for you, the reader. Because it's all about you."

Here's a guide to the new features. (Same thing here in a one-page PDF.)

Sun-Times advertising/marketing columnist Lewis Lazare writes:

Unexpected and uniquely local news stories will get top priority in the refreshed newspaper, which some ads in the rebranding campaign will reference as reflecting the "real Chicago."

Reflecting the increasing importance of the Web as a news resource, many stories will encourage readers to jump to the Web for additional specific content that might be tightly focused on Chicago — such as highly localized neighborhood guides — or links to the Web's best content on a range of topics.

Former Sun-Timeser Robb Montgomery's got a podcast interview with Editor Michael Cooke and Kenney Marlatt at SND posts a link to a video by Publisher John Cruickshank.

Outside reaction is starting to come in. Alan Jacobson says it's "one of the best redesigns seen in years."

With all the vim and vigor of Bakersfield, KC and Norfolk, the redesigned Sun-Times is bound to get some eyeballs, making the Chicago Tribune or award-winning Mercury News look like your father's Oldsmobile.

But my old friend Steve Rhodes, a veteran Chicago media observer and proprieter of the excellent Beachwood Reporter, is less taken with it:

Ho-hum. While there are some decent elements, it still looks like a dowdy newspaper. And those full-length photos of columnists are nothing but a distraction. But the real problem is one that every redesign faces — that old lipstick on a pig thing. Unfortunately, nobody wants to improve the pig. It's not that hard to understand. Campbell's can change the label all they want, but if their soup still sucks, their soup still sucks. If the Sun-Times — or any paper — wants more readers, you have to make a better newspaper (website not only included, but emphasized). And making a better, must-read newspaper means quality journalism, not "Chicagopedia" entries that purport to explain what words such as "buddy" mean in to people who live here. Redesigns always work around the edges, and in areas like packaging health and shopping news, but never seem to spark better ways to actually report on the city — and that's the guts of any newspaper. Just once I'd like to see a redesign that also gamed out an investment and redeployment of reporters throughout the city, instructed reporters to always wonder during an interview why they're being lied to, and, say, mandated that each reporter file at least one Freedom of Information request a month. That would be a newspaper that would show readership gains.

Also, a couple weeks ago, Rhodes reported:

When asked why the paper didn't invest more in the paper's website, Editor-in-Chief Michael Cooke was heard to say that nobody believes what they read on the Internet.

Yeah, that's the spirit!

Here are more pages from today's paper:

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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.

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LA Observed notes today that over the weekend the LA Times has scaled back some of the front-page typography that was changed last fall, apparently eliminating the Titling Gothic Compressed and some of the stacked decks. He also says Times editor Jim O'Shea was seen escorting around Tony Majeri, design legend and former Chicago Tribune senior editor for innovation a couple weeks back.

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The Arizona Republic has retooled its Monday newspaper "for busy people," editor Ward Bushee says.

Luke Knox of the Republic says the new Monday edition features

... shorter stories, more short-form information and content to help readers kick-start their week. It's basically the antithesis of the usual Monday product you may find from a number of papers, filled with retread stories and no real news to sink your teeth into.

The new Monday Republic is compressed into three sections: an expanded A section that includes the Valley & State and Biz sections folded inside, an expanded Sports section, and an expanded Features section. Section fronts have one, (mostly) non-jumping story and a series of lists, refers and other devices to get the reader into the section.

Redesign work was done primarily by Tracy Collins and Bill Pliske, and executed by the design staff.

Nice work. I'm guessing that ad at the top left of the front page sticks in a few craws, though.

>Today's edition designed for busy people [Arizona Republic]

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The New York Observer, every literate New Yorker’s favorite pink newspaper, relaunched as a tabloid on Wednesday.

It’s printed on 30 pound stock, with a four-page wrap on 50 pound stock (the page above is the front of the wrap). Location, the real estate section, moves to the back cover. Typographically, they’re using Dispatch, Benton Sans and Mercury for display type. The front-page flag is by Jim Parkinson.

David Carr fretted in The New York Times:

The Observer redesign, however, is not simply a redesign, but a change in fundamentals, an altering of the product’s DNA.

As a technology, the new format works fine, more manageable, easier to navigate. But as a thing — and the physical properties of a print publication are more important in the digital age, not less so — The Observer has been trimmed in a way that makes it fit in all too well.

To which New York Mag’s Daily Intelligencer responded:

Does nostalgic-for-the-status-quo Carr have $2 million a year to cover the Observer's status-quo losses?

Roger Black gave some positive comments to the New York Post, but panned the wrap. “It seems to dumb it down and make it look a lot like other alternative weeklies.”

>A Note on the Redesign [New York Observer]
>A Cheeky Broadsheet’s Tabloid Makeover [The New York Times]
>Who Moved David Carr's ‘Observer’? [New York Magazine]
>Paper Cuts [New York Post]

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The Idaho State Journal in Pocatello launched a redesign Monday. Editor Ian H. Fennell wrote in his weblog Feb. 3 about the focus group process.

[T]he overall response to our new look and content was overwhelmingly positive.

Most of our focus group participants said the new Journal was a dramatic improvement over the current paper and they urged us to follow through with the changes.

We took that advice and are proud to say that the new Journal is a totally reader-driven creation. You told us what you wanted and we listened.

He’s taking comments on the new look here.

Consultant Alan Jacobson has more details and page images at his site.

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Los Angeles Times Editor James O’Shea on Wednesday announced major changes on the horizon for the paper, including a redesign. If you seem to remember that the Times just redesigned part of the paper recently, you’d be right. But this, O’Shea says, will be a “real redesign.”

I am going to establish a second working group from the newsroom to help me with another major challenge we face, redesigning the print newspaper to make it an effective backbone for latimes.com.

Sometime this fall, the Los Angeles Times, like every other major paper including the New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune and others, will adapt a 48-inch press web that will create a newspaper that will be slightly narrower than the one we currently publish.

There is no stopping this conversion. The entire industry is moving that way. Even if we were not going to make any newsroom changes, the new press web width would probably require a redesign.

This time, though, we are going to do a real redesign, one that questions and challenges every section of the newspaper, a redesign that relates individual sections to the newspaper as a whole.

This effort will come from within the newsroom. We will lead it, but we will also include in our working group some thoughtful colleagues from outside the newsroom, people who have expertise and experience in areas unfamiliar to journalists.

Ideally I would like to take a year to rethink everything we do. But we don't have the luxury of that much time. Innovation is something we have to do in the newspaper every day. It is an ongoing process.

So we probably will do a phased redesign that will play out over the next year. The redesign working group will work this out.

>Editor James O’Shea unveils Web initiative at Times [L.A. Times]
>James O’Shea’s address to Times staff [L.A. Times]

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Here are some before-and-afters from the Rocky Mountain News. New pages on the right. In the larger images I’ve adjusted the new pages to reflect the smaller size. Update: Also, the Rocky’s opened up access to its electronic edition until midnight Friday, so take a look for yourself.

Update2: Roger Black weighs in in the comments on the previous post.

There are actually many spreads in the paper, particularly at the front of each section , which you don't show, and neither does the web site's ActivePaper PDF reader. But if you see the printed edition, the size, the layout-as-spreads, the increased color, the no-jump booking, the more informal headlines style, it begins to look like a magazine.

<snip>

John Temple has been talking about the redesign on his blog for months, and there have been many opportunities for readers to tell the paper what they want, and they have. The little poll on the logo development is part of a continuing process to bring readers in on the defintion of the Rocky brand. The question here is, "Is it The Rocky or is it Rocky Mountain News?" The staff is extremely interested to see how people react to that, because they went pretty far down the road (as you can see) to actually changing the name of the paper. And the defnition of a brand is never finished, nor is a paper's design. These are processes, not events.

Here are some spreads from today’s paper:

Roger Black worked on the project, and has a few thoughts and pages on his blog. The Rocky also has a blog post about the redesign, with comments enabled. Editor John Temple has already chimed in in the comments.

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The Rocky Mountain News in Denver and the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel both launched redesigns today. Both papers have also reduced their size. The indefatigable Charles Apple has more details at VisualEditors (Rocky, Milwaukee).

They look nice, but nothing too radical here, from what I can see (my rant on that here). Some new fonts and some general cleaning up. Rocky editor John Temple writes the paper’s “conceived more like a magazine,” but just says that in relation to where columns are placed. Is that a larger philosphical shift as well? The front does look more magazine-like (Alan Jacobson says the photo’s “ambiguous and passive”), but is that just because they’re kicking off a big honkin’ 33-part series?

And this bugs me. There’s an audio slideshow by Temple on the evolution of the flag through the redesign process. (Those flags, by the way, have the distinct and lovely smell of Jim Parkinson, but that’s speculation Parkinson wasn't involved, Roger Black says.) You can also vote for which one you would pick. But why do that now, when it doesn’t matter? To me, that almost seems more contemptuous of reader opinion than not asking at all. If you really cared what readers thought about that, you’d do it before you actually made the decision.

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The public radio show Studio 360 devoted part of this week’s episode to the new Wall Street Journal. Design writer and former I.D. Magazine editor Chee Pearlman weighs in with about 5 minutes of commentary.

It just feels like a little Mini-Me of the Wall Street Journal. Wall Street Journal Jr. It’s cute, it’s little, it’s a little bit more friendly. You’d be lying to say that you’re doing it for the convenience of the reader. It’s lost an inch and a half on each side in order for them to save somewhere in the neighborhood of $18 million a year. That’s not for the reader. Trust me on that one.

>Small Street Journal [Studio 360]

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In the new spirit of “unboxing,” John Moore of Brand Autopsy unboxes the new Wall Street Journal:

Now, if you’re like me, when you think of The Wall Street Journal, you inevitably think of Tupac (don’t tell me you don’t). And you wonder “why has no one given us a Tupac-fueled love-letter to the Journal? Wonder no more, yo:

(Thanks, Tom!)

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The new narrower, Mario Garcia-redesigned Wall Street Journal is out today. Free on the newsstands and online today, apparently. Romenesko’s got links. Here are some of today’s section fronts and a page about the new design from the reader’s guide. Here’s a PDF of that page.

Garcia says he was already getting positive reader e-mails before dawn. But for his part, web designer Greg Storey says “who in their infinite ivy-league 5th Avenue wisdom spilt McClatchy all over this morning’s Wall Street Journal?”

Update: Here's the full PDF of the Reader's Guide.

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The Wall Street Journal, shrinking its page size by three inches on Jan. 2, will unveil the Mario Garcia redesigned version today in New York. The move to a 12-inch-wide front page brings the Journal in line with most American broadsheets (except The New York Times, which makes the switch next August April) and is expected to save Dow Jones $18 million a year.

Executives and advertisers are happy, but some Journal journalists aren’t. “Lopping a column off the paper is not a quality move,” reporter E. S. Browning told The New York Times. “It will be harder to do long-form journalism when there is less space on Page One.” Editors say to compensate for the lost space, the number of pages will be increased, some statistical information will be cut, and the paper will be more tightly edited.

Garcia told the Times the narrower format presented a challenge. “It was like dressing Kate Moss.”

Update: PR Week has a Q&A with Journal Managing Editor Paul Steiger.

Did the redesign that you did in 2002 not go far enough? Many of the themes seem to be the same - such as navigation?

Steiger: You can't do everything at once. Remember, when we made those changes, our readers had been used to black and white, tombstone vertical layout on page one. What we gave them was an additional section three days a week, plus color on all of the section fronts, and I just didn't want to produce too many coronaries out there. It worked; readers liked it. But [in the] meantime, time is moving very, very fast in the news space, and the acceleration of the use of the web, including our own Web site, for readers to stay in touch with news, meant that it was time to go into the well again.

Slate's Jack Shafer is skeptical, and he busts loose with the comparison heard after every redesign of the last 20 years:

The rejigged Journal will also brim with summaries of all sorts. The paper plans to digest news from other news sources in one column, summarize "the key news by industry and news topic" in another, and even condense the paper's long features to "draw out the key meaning." Sounds like they'll be paying royalties to USA Today, doesn't it?

>In Tough Times, a Redesigned Journal [The New York Times]

Previous coverage:
>Shrinking the Journal (Oct. 11, 2005)
>“Reimagining” the Wall Street Journal (Feb. 20, 2006)
>WSJ 3.0 (June 2, 2006)

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La Tribune, a Paris financial daily, launched a Garcia Media-led redesign Monday (new pages on the right). Garcia Media’s Mario Garcia and Christian Fortanet worked with Francois-Xavier Pietri, La Tribune editor in chief, and Henry Houssay, art director.

Here’s Garcia’s rundown:

1. A front page that is designed to offer a quick glance at the main headlines of the day.

2. A page 2-3 “mini newspaper within the newspaper” that offers a five-minute glance at the content of that day’s newspaper. “This will be a highlight of this project for many readers,” Garcia said. “It is 100% utility and service for that busy reader who wants to get a good heads up on the news of the day before attending his/her first meeting.”

3. Better hierarchy throughout the entire newspaper, with bigger and bolder headlines.

4. More secondary readings to amplify information, or to send readers to other sources and related topics.

5. Greater fusion between the print and online edition (which was also designed with the help of Garcia Media’s team of Mario Garcia Jr and John Miller).

6. A color palette that identifies various sections of the newspaper, starting with the navigator.

7. Newly designed and rethought informational graphics style.

8. Redesign of all supplements.

9. New typographic fonts: Gotham Bold for new logo; Miller for headlines, with Guggenheim in various weights used for contrast throughout the entire newspaper.

10. New presentation of advertising, including advertising configurations never used before.

“The new La Tribune will be a more analytical, but still newsy, financial newspaper of record, but also more personalized,” Pietri said. “We will tell more stories from the personal viewpoint of those making news.”

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The Times of London today rolls out a new typeface, Times Modern, and a few other design changes, including a redrawn insignia in the nameplate.

The art director on the project was Neville Brody, who says the changes are more evolution than revolution.

“The Times had almost all of the tools it needed to create a dynamic, usable, clearly-articulated and familiar language from within its current vocabulary. What it lacked was a few catalytic elements and an evolved architecture (both page and section). Following its move from broadsheet size, the paper still carried some of the design language of the larger format. Essentially, the approach we adopted has been more architectural than decorative and more fundamental than surface. Visual elements and devices needed to be re-visited from the ground up and rationalised within a clear plan and layout.”

Of the new typography, David Driver, head of design for The Times, writes:

The Times Modern introduced today allows a better shaped headline with extra characters per line. This allows for more articulation in the process of writing. The change is not reckless impulse, but reading conditions for many people have become less leisurely. Newspaper typography should evolve to meet technological innovations and The Times is once again at the sharp end.

The body copy remains Times Classic. They’ve also introduced Hoefler & Frere-Jones’ Gotham to the lineup.

On the editorial page, Times editors say: The relationship between The Times and its readers is curiously personal for a mass-market publication. In the past a thousand pens might have leapt from their inkwells to protest about a facelift to a familiar friend. But few of our readers today read us at leisure in leather armchairs. We, too, must move with the times, from the age of stiff collars into an age of relaxed formality.

They’re also soliticing questions for a Brody Q&A.

And don’t miss this very cool slideshow of 221 years of Times nameplates.

My favorite quote from the internal guide to the redesign: “The redesign centres on a new headline font, “Times Modern”. This font should NOT be squeezed! It has been drawn to be more condensed — and Big Brother is watching.”

Some more page comparisons, new pages on the right:

Update: Alan Formby-Jackson interviews Prowse.

>The Times They are a Changing - Thanks to Neville Brody's Research Studios [PRNewswire]
>After 221 years, the world’s leading newspaper shows off a fresh face [The Times]
>Times Modern: Changing our typeface in order to make life easier for the reader [The Times]

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Ally Palmer of Palmer Watson sends word of a couple European projects they’ve recently finished. Denmark’s Politiken on Oct. 1 and Norway’s Adresseavisen on Sept. 16. Both were pretty radical changes. Politiken has “reinvented” itself, moving away from conventional news reporting. And Adresseavisen converted from broadsheet to compact. Here are some pages and Ally’s words about each. There’s more info at palmerwatson.com

Politiken

One of the most influential newspapers in Europe, has taken a brave step into the future.

Denmark’s respected daily broadsheet recently introduced a Palmer Watson redesign - but also reinvented the way it handles and presents news. It has abandoned its traditional news reporting format and replaced it with a two-tier system which is intended to combine the qualities of an online newsfeed and a news magazine.

The aim is to give readers the best of both worlds. The “overview” area of the pages provides a functional, comprehensive news service, produced and presented in a compact, efficient way to keep it as up to date as deadlines allow.

The “insight” area is where selected issues are given the “Politiken treatment” – quality writing, rigorous reporting, serious analysis - illuminated by some of the best photo-journalism you will see in any newspaper.

Alongside this significant change of approach in response to the challenge of new media and the explosion of free papers in Denmark, the paper updated its look - but this was a rethink, not a redesign.

Adresseavisen

Norway’s oldest newspaper, has made a hugely successful transition to tabloid.

The compact revolution swept into Norway earlier this autumn. Adresseavisen, based in Trondheim, was one of four regional broadsheets to convert to tabloid on the same day: the others were Bergens Tidende, Stavanger Aftenblad and Faedrelandsvennen in Kristiansand.

Adresseavisen, 239-years-old, is one of Norway’s strongest brands. It dominates its region, reaching a huge percentage of the population. But already impressive readership statistics read even better after the switch from broadsheet to tabloid:  subscriptions are up by  5,300 taking circulation to 84,400. And the advertising volume is down 20% but the revenues are up 10%.

7 Comments

Alan Jacobson has a response to my redesigns and circulation post, noting that circulation isn’t the only metric that should be considered when discussing the success of a redesign, that increased revenue would indicated success. He notes that the Bakersfield and Waterbury redesigns (for which he consulted) have showed increased classified revenues since their redesigns.

He is, of course, correct. (And he makes some other fine points about promotion, follow-through and content.) It wasn’t my intention to label these redesigns as failures. I just thought it’d be interesting to chart recent redesigns against the one easily obtainable and widely watched newspaper metric. I’m sure someone with the time and access to more sophisticated data could come to some more valuable conclusions. (Seems there are plenty of organizations and think tanks out there that could pull something like that off. Me, I’m just some guy blogging in his spare time.)

Still, I don’t think you can entirely separate revenue from circulation. If circulation continues to fall, print revenue will surely follow. The revenue will follow the eyeballs. The key, of course, is to make sure the eyeballs go to one of our other delivery platforms.

Update: Mary Nesbit, managing director of the Readership Institute at Northwestern University, says:

We need to be careful about what these charts are really telling us, because they don't take into account contextual factors. For instance:

1. Circulation "policy" in effect -- like decisions to cut way back on or stop discounting; decisions to cut out other low-paid categories; decisions to restrict circulation in certain areas etc.

2. The strategy or intent of the newspaper in mounting a redesign. The strategy, for instance, may be to maintain or grow readership (which is different from circulation.) Or it may be to grow readership in a particular segment. Or it may be to bring a more contemporary feel to a dated product. Or -- to sell more ads.

3. The nature of the redesign itself. Was it cosmetic redesign, or far-reaching changes to content, or some of both?

4. Internal factors. How much marketing was going on at the same time? What intensity of customer focus was at play in the circulation department? In advertising? Was the whole organization aligned against a circulation strategy?

Lacking this kind of data, interpretation is almost impossible. We come away from the charts with two things that may or may not be related: paid circulation continues on a downward trend at these properties (and in the industry generally, though readership of the print product and usage of the website are a much prettier picture); and these newspapers undertook redesigns. That's all really we can say.

Again, I'm not pushing any particular interpretation of these numbers. Mary certainly raises a lot of good questions. Someone should crunch the data and answer them. Hey! Maybe some institute on, say, readership!

>Lies, damn lies and statistics [Brass Tacks Design]

22 Comments

I thought it would be interesting to chart the circulation numbers for some of the higher-profile redesigns of the past couple years: Bakersfield Californian, Baltimore Sun, Denver Post, Houston Chronicle, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, Seattle Times, Spokane Spokesman-Review, St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Waterbury, Conn., Republican-American. I also found some numbers for some British papers that have changed formats.

The numbers are from the ABC, mostly Monday-Saturday averages. I tried to get the March and September numbers for each year where I could, but it wasn't always possible. The British numbers are monthly, so they're a bit more volatile than the American six-month averages.

Circulation, of course, is affected by all sorts of factors from news to price changes to population fluctuations (you can see the snowbird spikes in the Orlando numbers every spring), so there really aren’t any firm conclusions you can draw about a redesign's effect from these numbers alone. Other than that it sure doesn't send it through the roof. (Unless you're a British paper that converts to Berliner. But even those numbers are coming back down.)

So for what they're worth, here they are (click on the graphs for a larger version):