Results tagged “redesign”

The Pulitzer Prizes Web site underwent a makeover, focusing on easier navigation and a more "visual" look, Editor and Publisher reported.

The "vibrant" redesigned site aims to feature more information about the winners, such as photos and online submitted material.

Pulitzer.org has been operating since 1995.

Source: Editor and Publisher

The Telegraph's revamped website is to be revealed within the week, focusing on redesigned news, sports and travel sections, aiming to boost speed and reliability. Like The Guardian, the Telegraph chose to gradually restructure parts of its site, instead of a complete makeover in one go, PressGazette.co.uk reported.

"We weren't really looking for a seismic change because what we have found with web design projects is that it's a fine balance between improving the experience but not losing your users who have got used to the previous design," said Ed Roussel, Telegraph Media Group's digital editor.

The redesign includes horizontal navigation that features vertical menus to magnify the amount of space available for the content.

Meanwile, article pages will have links to related stories from the Telegraph's archive, that are found using Autonomy Corp's search feature.
 
The paper's site is to function with the eScenic content management system, allowing for different revamped sections to be unravelled steadily.

Source: PressGazette.co.uk

Back in 2001, the Guardian newspaper asked, "Where have all the women gone?", and it is a question that has plagued the editors of leading British newspapers for the past two decades as only 41% of women - 10.3 million - read a daily UK newspaper (October to March 2008).
 
Genevieve Roberts, a former features writer and reporter for The Independent, now an advertising planner for McCann Erickson on the Evening Standard account, told me: "Almost every newspaper is trying to appeal to female readers. In crude commercial terms, females are the main shoppers in more than 50% of households, and advertisers want to appeal to people who shop so they have the opportunity to buy their product."

This is the crux of the issue, advertising is now more than ever driving the bottom-line of newspapers, and it is crucial that newspapers attract the right demographic to appeal to advertising agencies and businesses.

Without female readers, the advertisers will look elsewhere.

The Glossy Magazine Approach

Newspapers are tackling this problem in two distinctly different ways: the glossy/gossip magazine approach and the female interest approach.

Daily Mirror
(From July 2007 to December 2007: Female = 43%)

Daily Mirror Editor Richard Wallace has discretely changed the focus of the newspaper from the traditional male-orientated tabloid to appeal to women who buy popular weekly gossip magazines.

Andrew Higton, a sub-editor at The Mirror, told me that this marketing approach has involved a significant change in culture for the staff. Editors, reporters and sub-editors are often told to make copy more "female-friendly". This new approach is applied at all levels, for example, when President Nicolas Sarkozy of France visited the UK, subs were told to focus much of the story on Carla Brunei's outfits.

The Daily Mirror's shift towards the glossy magazine style has also involved changing the look of the whole newspaper in an attempt to make it more visually appealing to the female market. The newspaper has now gone full-colour, redesigned its features pages, covers female issues such as family life and children, and it contains more celebrity-focused pictures alongside the news stories.

Daily Express

This is also the approach that Richard Desmond's Daily Express is following. The newspaper is using its experience in the magazine market (Richard Desmond is the proprietor of the increasingly popular weekly glossy magazine, "OK!") to attract women readers. It is also the path that several of the new free daily newspapers are following, such as The London Paper, which regularly features celebrity stories on its front page.

The Female Interest Approach

Daily Mail

However, Helen Lewis, sub-editor at the Daily Mail, said to me that she is not so sure that the glossy magazine route is correct. She told me, "The problem lies in conflating 'female interest' with 'celebrity story', and although it's been a successful formula, I think it's one that's coming to the end of its usefulness in terms of shifting copies."

The Daily Mail is the most successful newspaper in the UK in terms of attracting female readers. In 1995 (Jan to Dec) 49% of its readers were female, in 2006 (Jan to Dec) this had grown to 52% and the figures for 2007 show that it had held onto this 52% demographic. The Daily Mail enjoys more female than male readers. However, it has not completely gone down the celebrity gossip/magazine style. Undoubtedly it does feature these kinds of stories, but it balances this with news stories and a style proven to attract female readers. According to the National Readership Survey, women care about news - it being their "main reason for purchase" - but they like to be told pretty briskly what has happened, but not what it all may or may not mean. The survey also indicates that British women are turned off by sport and are not too keen on finance.

A quick glance at the Daily Mail after reading this data shows how the Daily Mail has struck the right balance to appeal to the female demographic.

Genevieve Roberts told me during an interview on this issue: "In the UK, the Daily Mail has the highest percentage of female readers, and unsurprisingly, this increases its appeal for advertisers."

The Times
(From July 2007 to December 2007: Female = 42%)

The Times deliberately targets females with its T2 supplement magazine, just as the Guardian (from July 2007 to December 2007: Female = 46%) targets females with its supplement magazine, G2.

These magazins are not aimed solely at women, but The Times' chose to advertise to females when it re-launched the supplement, indicating the importance of female readers to this publication. In a £1m-plus campaign, they targeted a cross-section of women: professionals, housewives and mothers.

Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal Online appears to agree with The Times and the Daily Mail's approach for attracting female readers. In May of this year it launched a new section aimed at a female audience, however, it is also not going down the glossy magazine route. WSJ Online executive editor Alan Murray told Reuters, "Our experience has shown us that there are a lot of business and professional women out there who crave not just fashion and beauty advice, but an intelligent news-oriented community where they can share experiences and swap ideas."

Early indicators point to the Female Interest Approach as having the most success, but only time will tell which strategy works in the long run. The battle lines have been drawn in one of the world's most aggressive newspaper markets, and it is certainly a battle that other editors will watch with interest.

Sources: Newspaper Marketing Agency, Brand Republic, Reuters

On the day that Le Monde officially launched their new website, Le Figaro report that for the first time they are "the most popular news website in France" with 3.17 million unique visitors a month (Médiamétrie/Netratings).



The difference here is in the figure that each publication chooses to highlight. Le Monde reported on their front page that they have 37.8 million visits a month, but this is distinctly different figure to unique visitors.

However, it must be pointed out that Le Monde's website is focused on news, whereas Le Figaro's website offers a whole range of supplements and is in no way just a news website.

It is clear that both newspapers are making great strides, but when compared to the New York Times (14 million unique visitors a month) and the Guardian.co.uk (19 million global unique users a month - February 2008), both sites clearly have a long way to go.

Source: New York Times, Guardian, Le Monde, Le Figaro

South African newspaper Die Burger is undergoing a makeover. It is launching its new design and reinvigorated content on the 14th of July. Die Burger held focus groups all over the country to find out what its reader wanted to see.

The paper will feature:

-More in-depth daily news analysis.
-More focus on global news, in particular Africa.
-More legible typography and accessible layout.
-Shorter, more meaningful articles.
-Bigger crossword puzzles.
-Latest entertainment news in the TV schedule.
-Popular comic strips.
-Breaking news updates will be provided through mobile services, newsletters and online.

"The purpose of this redesign is to offer a product through which one can truly stay at the forefront of news - breaking and in-depth - analysis and entertainment," the paper said.

Source: Biz Community through IFRA Executive News Service

Art director Al Trivino headed the Sunday Times recent redesign. He said that some of the main reasons for the redesign were to modernize and to introduce more colour in smart doses, GarciaMedia reported.

"Most importantly it was trying to rescue some of the innovative visual journalism brought to paper years ago by pioneers as Peter Sullivan and Edwin Taylor who made it a very influential content driven design newspaper," Trivino mentioned.

Trivino pointed out that it is still early days in the redesign, but that media buyers and readers alike welcome the changes. He said that readers thought colour use on every page was "enjoyable" and "helpful' and that the paper is now easier to navigate.

However, he did say that some think the body copy is too small.

"We are working on that and on some other formatting inconsistencies that will help to deliver a better paper," Trivino said.

Source: Garcia Media through IFRA Executive News Service

English regional newspaper publisher, Newsquest, is rolling out a revamped website.

The Lancashire Telegraph, Telegraph & Argus and The Press have all had the makeover treatment. Further Newsquest sites are expected to launch the new look in the weeks ahead.

The new-look websites have a navigation website that tretches across the top of the screen, bigger banner adverts, live traffic updates, weather reports, and a  'What's On' information on every page. Birthday, marriages and deaths are now altogether in one section titled 'Announcements' and blogs and comments are also paired together.

lancashiretelegraph.co.uk guides readers through some of the major changes.

Source: Holdthefrontpage.co.uk through IFRA Executive News Service

The Sunday Times unveiled its new design, which includes colour-coded content, increased colour usage, minimal changes in the basic architecture and typeface alterations.



The Times' move to a different printing plant has brought on a change in the use of colour, editor John Witherow said. Not only are the paper's sections colour-coded, colours are used to distinguish different types of reporting (i.e. the Comment section in green, news stories in blue and special reports in red).  

"For the first time in its 186-year history, every page of every section of this newspaper can now be published in colour. It was these new presses that prompted a comprehensive review of how we produce and present the paper, and the design you see today is the result. We were keen to use colour to maximum effect without going over the top," Witherow said.

Although there have been changes to the structure of the paper, such as moving The Weather section and India Knight's column or expanding the Comment section, the basic blueprint of the paper remains the same.

 "We have brought in much that is new, but not at the expense of the old," Witherow said.

Source: The Sunday Times

Since its relaunch April 1, Cosmopolitan.co.uk's web traffic has surged. According to Journalism.co.uk, the Cosmo site has increased the number of unique users visiting the site by 136 per cent in May compared to a traffic audit from October 2007 -- the most recent information available from the Audit Bureau of Circulation Electronic.

According to the Nedstat data used by Journalism.co.uk, the Hearst Digital site registered 415,165 unique visitors in May up from 176,385 users recorded by ABCE in October. Page views over this period also doubled from 2,388,532 in October to 5,131,472 in May.

Hearst originally set targets of five million page views and 500,000 unique monthly visitors by the end of 2008, said Hearst Digital managing director Alex Ballantyne.

"We're pretty much on track to achieve those numbers this month or next month when at the start of the year we said we'd try and achieve that by December. We're well ahead of the curve with Cosmo, it has been a fantastic response from the market," said Ballantyne.

Ballantyne credited the site's success to "a new SEO-friendly platform built specifically for the launch, improved knowledge of the importance of tagging for search amongst editors and substantial cross promotion through magazine and across its network of sites had contributed to the traffic gains," reported Journalism.co.uk.

The site's relaunch has added a host of new features, most significantly the online video service CosmoTV. The video channel features a mix of clips from "red carpet" events and shows in addition to in-house video, including "how to's" on hair and make-up.

Duncan Edwards, the CEO of NetMags, that creates most of the video content, said they originally considered getting content froma  third party, like Videolug, but decided to create original clips instead.

According to the Guaradian.co.uk, the Cosmopolitan relaunch tests the water for Hearst Digital, which will snow et about ramping up Allaboutyou.com, the portal for content from magazine titles House Beautiful, Coast, Prima, Good Housekeeping, Country Living and She.

Sources: Journalism.co.uk, Guardian.co.uk

Its all change at The Record of Bergen County, the New Jersey based newspaper is undergoing a redesign that will be launched this Sunday. The makeover will include more graphics, stronger headlines and quicker reads.

The change is aimed at making the paper more appealing to its time-pressed readers, and providing a more "reader-friendly format" according to Editor Frank Scandale.

From Sunday, there will be a new style front page with an "At a Glance" summary box featuring top stories of the day, as well as guides to top stories on the inside pages. The paper is launching a new beat on how shifting census trends effect economics and a faster-paced Business section. It will also include a baby boomer column and a social events pictorial in the Better Living section.

The Record of Bergen County is published by the North Jersey Media Group.

Source: CNBC

Mark Potts, author of the Recovering Journalist blog, recently wrote about the ten changes he thinks newspapers need to make to thrive. What follows is an edited transcript of his post:

What would you do if you ran a newspaper?

Somebody asked me that question recently, and it made me pull together some of the thoughts I've had recently about the problems that newspapers are having and what they might do to pull out of their current spiral. This is hardly a complete list, but here's a 10-point prescription for ailing newspapers:

1. Make the Web the primary product.
Stop pasting the newspaper onto a screen. Reorganize the newsroom so that its work appears online as quickly as possible. ... And embrace the technology: news Web sites should be full of Web 2.0 goodness like interactive maps, social networking tools, RSS feeds, distribution to mobile devices, etc. Use the medium to its fullest.

2. Local, local, LOCAL!
There are a zillion places to get national and international news, in real time. But newspapers are virtually the only source of truly local news. ... Local news is the last unique franchise that newspapers own, and too many newspapers don't seem to understand this. ... (Why do you think local community newspapers are thriving when big metro dailies are shedding circulation?)

3. If it's widely available elsewhere, don't waste time re-creating it.
Does every newspaper really need its own movie critic? A TV critic? ... Book reviews? Stories from Washington that the AP already has? ... the answer is unequivocably no. Those resources are just wastd.

4. Zero-base the news operation.
Pretend you're starting from scratch. Look at everything that's in the paper and ask tough questions about whether it's still necessary in an age when readers have multiple sources of news and information.

5. Get the readers involved.
As Dan Gillmor has elegantly argued, the audience knows more than news people do. Much more. Tap that knowledge by encouraging reader participation in as many ways as possible: contributing news and information about their communities, sending in photos and videos, commenting on everything. This can't be a token effort, and you absolutely cannot be scared or controlling about it: let the readers get involved at every opportunity. It will greatly improve the product and increase readership.

6. Lose the editorial page.
Unsigned editorials are a relic of a bygone era when newspaper barons exerted power in their community... Here's a thought: Replace it with reader opinions!

7. Expand the advertising base.
In any market, there are thousands of small advertisers that would never consider advertising in the big local newspaper. It's too expensive and covers too broad an area. But those advertisers want to reach the same people the newspaper does. Find a way to make this happen: more focused zoning, cheaper ads, ad rep pay structures that encourage selling to smaller advertisers. This is another area where community papers are running rings around big dailies.

8. Rethink the classifieds.
Craigslist, Monster.com and countless other news competitors have decimated the newspaper classifieds business. ... Anybody who's used craigslist knows how much more effective it is than paid newspaper classifieds. Look hard at your classifieds ... Yes, that may include shifting most of the classifieds online and giving them away for free, in order to keep the critical mass of classifieds that makes them useful.

9. Find new ways to serve advertisers.
What newspapers offer advertisers--display ads, classifieds--really hasn't changed much in a century. Look for ways to change that. Get into the Yellow Pages directory business online. Aggressively offer contextual advertising. Use idle newspaper delivery resources to help local businesses with their delivery needs. Use subscription lists to help businesses find customer leads. Explore interactive advertising forms that go way beyond boring banner ads. Offer data services to help businesses manage their inventories or sell things online. It's not enough to simply sell space in the paper or on the Web site. Help advertisers make their businesses more successful.

10. Take chances. Innovate. Be fearless about trying things--and killing things.
...A wise editor once said to me, there's virtually no history of research and development in the newspaper business, which is odd considering that covering the news is a daily act of research and development. Let's face it: The single biggest innovation in print newspaper journalism in the past decade or so is...Sudoku. Newspapers can and must do better than that to survive.

Source: Recovering Journalist

In a five part series on CurryBet.net, Martin Belam reviews the Daily Mail's website redesign. Here are some highlights.

Layout

The new Mail website has some unwieldy designs, Belam says. First, a "skyscraper advert" lining the left side of the page results in a squeezed format that is hard to read. More noticeably, the home page is a colossal 6,369 pixels long - 10 pages of scrolling.

Finally, Belam is bewildered by the 140 links jamming the Mail's homepage. He believes that the Mail may have gotten overzealous with its coverage, leaving "designers with little choice but to include everything, to the detriment of the overall user experience."

RSS Feeds

The Mail has created RSS feeds for individual celebrities - an innovation, Belam says, that demonstrates "a real understanding of the strengths of the RSS format."

Navigation

Belam is a fan of the Mail's new interactive section, Coffee Break, which offers browsers games, crossword puzzles, and cartoons.

Message Boards

Belam likes the message board's "very graphical" front-page. He has mixed feelings, however, about the Mail's decision to display individual threads with the most recent post first. He says the ordering is "a very brave design decision" but warns that it can be "a very jarring experience the first time."

Hovering Preview

This feature, which displays the preview of a story when a mouse is rolled over it, was removed after the initial launch. Belam says it "caused more usability problems than it solved."




Source: CurryBet.net through IFRA

The publishers of the Cleveland Plain Dealer are revamping and redesigning the paper to combat smothering economic conditions. Changes will include, among other things, a front section easy to scan through and an area for reader feedback.

"Today we are sharing in another community challenge: a tough, rapidly shifting economy that is demanding changes of nearly every big industry, small business, and individual household," Publisher Terry Egger said in a letter to readers.

"The Plain Dealer is no exception."

The Plain Dealer detailed the changes in a two-page summary. A reshuffled front section will allow readers looking for a quick scan to have easy, comprehensive access to the crucial facts. Page Two's WakeUpCall will include regular columns, an area for reader feedback, and a brand-new "Five Smart Things You Should Know Today" summary.

"If you only have a few minutes," the summary says, "This page is your watercooler study guide."

Though it went unmentioned in the release, the changes at the Plain Dealer also include trimming pages. According to Managing Editor Debra Adams Simmons, the paper will be reduced by an average of 32 pages per week.

"It plays out differently on different days of the week," Simmons said. "We are looking at fewer pages per week."

Other changes include an expanded Sunday opinion forum and a new Diversions section - featuring comics, puzzles, and crosswords - that will wrap around the daily Classifieds. Additionally, the business section will no longer be published Mondays, and will instead be available online.

The paper also produced a daily time timeline designed to give readers a peek inside the daily churnings of a newspaper.

"We'd like you to understand more about what it takes to create, build, manufacture and deliver what we call 'the daily miracle'," Egger said.

To view PDFs of the summary and the timeline, click here, and scroll down to the links near the bottom of the article.

Source: Cleveland.com, Editor and Publisher

Sky News has relaunched its website today with a raft of new features. The revamp is aimed at personalizing the site for users and expanding its range of user-generated content and videos.

Steve Bennedik, the editor of Sky News Networked Media, states that, "The features we are introducing to personalize the site are just the start of a process aimed at allowing our users to tailor sky.com/news to suit all their online needs."

Sky is introducing an online community element to its website, powered by Pluck, enabling users to have their own blogs, to comment on other people's blogs, and discussion boards.

The redesigned website will incorporate SkyCast, a video platform powered by a "white label" version of Google's online video technology, into its news pages to encourage users to submit their own videos relating to news stories.

The new Choose Your News function allows users to hone their news search with categories including most popular stories, most recent video clips and "special interest" topics.

A Story Tracker function will automatically update users on news stories they are following.

Sky News is also launching a news service, powered by news aggregation company Daylife, which will provide readers with any related stories from "external sources" from the UK and international providers.

The website will also include more video, graphics and a new "bold design", as well as an interactive and searchable weather map of more than 4,500 destinations.

Source: Guardian

On July 6 the Sunday Times will debut its revamped version featuring full color sections, a new font, and a revised slogan. A television advertising campaign starting next week will lead into the launch.

"It's the first time in its 186-year history that the Sunday Times can use color in all sections and we plan to use it to banish grayness and to reinvigorate the newsprint sections," said editor John Witherow.

The Times' slogan will be updated from "The Sunday Times is the Sunday papers" to "The Sunday Times is my Sunday papers." Additionally, the Times will introduce blogs from its prominent columnists on its website.

As part of its own renovation, the daily Times uprooted writers from its Comment section and relocated them to page two; the Sunday Times, however, will not.

The redesign is made possible through a £650 investment in new presses by the Times' parent company, News International.

Source: The Guardian

Last Sunday, the Orlando Sentinel's new layout was unveiled to readers (see top), including "more graphics, quick-read digests of top news, blog summaries and other changes" in order to make it more attractive to busy readers, Wall Street Journal reported.

Since December, Samuel Zell has been in charge of the Tribune Co., which owns Chicago Daily News, The Orlando Sentinel and the Los Angeles Times. Zell's eight billion dollar buyout left Tribune Co. with a 13 billion dollar debt "amid an industrywide meltdown", according to the WSJ.

Zell has scheduled for the Tribune Co. papers to be redesigned by September this year. Some of the changes to be made include "scaled-back page counts and further paring of employees", the WSJ said.

The new look of the Sentinel attempts to make the paper become more "eye-catching" and plentiful with interesting, "alluring" stories, WSJ wrote.

"Our community is fast moving, very modern. It's changing and growing. We need to have a paper that feels like that, too." said Charlotte Hall, Sentinel Editor.

In the last year, the Sentinel's circulation has decreased to 227, 593, compared to Miami Herald's 240,000 and St. Petersburg Times 300,000. However, the Sentinel's Sunday circulation is 332,000.

The general trend for newspaper redesign, according to the WSJ, is "splashier colour, simpler layouts and more digestible stories."

Although the new version of the Sentinel corresponds to the trend, it "isn't as radical as it could be", Hall said. Lee Abrams, in charge of innovation, "encouraged" the newspaper to "emphasize its stars" by adding front-page photographs of columnists with excerpts from columns, WSJ wrote.

Local news coverage, consumer information and "government-watchdog stories" all increased and reporters have been coached on different story-telling techniques.

According to the WSJ, Zell thinks Tribune Co.'s newspaper division is "stuck in the past", perhaps not accommodating "readers used to the pizzazz and immediacy of the Web."

It isn't clear whether a makeover will change the financial condition of Tribune Co., as ad sales have generally been declining in the newspaper industry. The Newspaper Association of America said that in the first quarter newspaper ads dropped by 13 %, Tribune Co.'s falling by 15%.

The Bakerfield Californian's redesign in March 2006 got the paper a short-paced circulation and revenue growth that soon worsened. Chief Executive Richard Beene said, "Don't expect it to turn around circulation or revenue overnight. It's not a magic bullet." In his blog, Howard Owens said that he is "surprised" that not a lot of people compared the Sentinel's revamping to the Californian, terming the makeover "shocking", "wild", "bold" but not "original".

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Baltimore Sun are next in line for the revamping; meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune is to "test new ideas" in Saturday editions. Abrams mentioned that even though the Orlando Sentinel's new design will be used as a prototype, "every paper will be left to chart its own course", WSJ wrote.

Design experts have generally given the Sentinel's new look a thumbs-up, WSJ reports. Howar Greenberg, Orlando Sentinel and South Florida Sun-Sentinel publisher, said advertisers are enthusiastic about the makeover, which he thought might help improve ad revenue.

Hall said that for the time being, the readers will be "listened" to "carefully", to observe the impact that the redesign has.

Source: Wall Street Journal Online, HowardOwens.com

See also:
US: Chicago Tribune's public editor on downsizing the paper: let the readers decide
US: Tribune Co. newspaper redesign, "abrupt" and "unconventional"

Prominent South African newspaper Mail & Guardian (M & G) recently revamped its website with social networking and Web 2.0 functions. New features include a new layout, the ability to save article clippings, StoryHistory, StoryPredictor, the ability to comment and debate, semantic tagging, and the implementation of NewsSwarm.

In an interview with the Editors Weblog, the M & G Online general manager Matthew Buckland said that the aesthetic aspect of the redesign includes "a wider layout, top navigation instead of left", use of mixed fonts and more white space.

The new site attempts to "build networking features", Buckland said. The ability to see other people's news clippings allows a user to "meet users based on similar interests."

NewsSwarm allows users to see who is viewing what at a given time. "It's interesting from a user perspective to see what articles are important," Buckland mentioned.

StoryPredict will forecast what stories a user will be interested in based on the browsing history, which is in turn saved.

In the past, users were not able to comment but this was due to technical restrictions, according to Buckland. Now comments to the news site are enabled for registered members. "We ensure comments. We encourage users to post under real names. We ensure a high level of intelligent debate," Buckland said.

Every site except the Thoughtleader.co.za, the Techleader.co.za and the Sportsleader.co.za sites require users to register if they want to comment.

Registered users are also able to blog, Buckland said.

The advanced printing function allows for articles to be printed in a row.  

Buckland pointed out that the new site is "tagged quite heavily". Related news stories are linked to articles, even if they are "from competitors and blogs", according to Buckland.

In his blog, Vincent Maher, strategist at the M & G, said that because the old code and the database were "messy", the developing team had to reconstruct "the site from the ground up on a completely new set of technologies."

According to Maher's blog, "the project scope and order of production" included:

- Redesigning and developing front end, designing a new strategy for ad formats, new CMS
- Developing a new data structure to accommodate real-time visualization and semantic tagging
- Integrating an advertising engine and negotiating with advertisers
- Integrating national-level navigation mapping, city-level mapping through Google Maps, "contextually-relevant" outside news sources through Google News, "contextually-relevant" blog postings through Google Blog Search
- Creating new templates for e-commerce partner sites
- Rebuilding newsletter system
(For the whole list, go to Maher's blog) 

Source: Matt Buckland, General Manager Mail & Guardian Online, VincentMaher.com

See also:
South Africa: Mail and Guardian launches Amatomu blog aggregator

The Orlando Sentinel launched its print redesign on June 22, as part of Tribune Co.'s company-wide redesign of its papers. According to some analysts, such as Newsosaur blogger Alan Mutter, the planned changes - motivated in good part by challenging economics - are "abrupt and unconventional."

You can view the redesigned pages full-size by clicking here.

Source: Orlando Sentinel

According to award-winning newspaper designer Mario R. Garcia, fewer sections and decreased length may actually be an answer for weekday dailies - contradicting conventional editorial and reader wisdom.

Per Andersson-Ek, associate editor of the Göteborgs Posten, said that the paper's decision to shorten from a four-section to a three-section daily in 1994 proved to be successful, as readers reacted by saying it became a "more handy, structured and easily navigated newspaper, covering more of today´s topics and talk of the town".

Sam Zell, the chairman and chief executive of Tribune Co., declared that "500 pages of news" would be trimmed weekly from the company's dozen papers in order to have a paper divided "50-50 between news content and ads."

Such statements have in effect caused editors and readers to be concerned with the risks of decreased editorial quality. A Chicago Tribune reader  posted on the chicagotribune.com comment board that she was concerned that "reducing the size of the newspaper might mean eliminating news and favoring more stories about R. Kelly and less about Tibet or Darfur."

But according to Garcia, "talented editors" are required for the task of thinning newspapers. Timothy McNulty, Chicago Tribune's public editor, says that one of the most difficult tasks for journalists today is to be able to adapt to changes in economy without losing traditions.

"I am convinced the newspaper of the next ten years will have fewer pages, published in a more compact format, with much greater coordination between online/print offerings, a more substantial local coverage, and with a design that emphasizes good navigation, clear hierarchy and service," wrote Garcia.

Source: Garciamedia.com

The Tribune Co. will be redesigning their newspapers. In his Newsosaur blog, Alan Mutter wrote that "the combination of abrupt and unconventional change" might scare away some readers.

The Orlando Sentinel is the first of the newspapers to be modified. A blogger identified as a Los Angeles Times staffer has posted online the new design of the Orlando Sentinel (left).

The radical redesign is just what Tribune intends. Said Randy Michaels, chief operating officer for the Tribune Co.: "We are going to roll out a different look and feel in each market, emphasizing what people are telling us they want in the research - charts, graphs, maps, lists." On June 22, the Sentinel will adopt the new look and the rest of the papers will follow towards the end of September.

Mutter cited the Chicago Daily News incident that happened over 30 years ago, when the newspaper attempted to revamp itself and wound up collapsing. According to him, this is even more likely today, since "modern consumers have even more alternatives to newspapers today than they did back then."

"Newspapers need to profoundly change," said Mutter, and it "would be wrong to stubbornly resist progress for the sake of resisting change."

"But changes in products as personal and familiar as a newspaper should be undertaken slowly, cautiously, incrementally and thoughtfully," he said.

Source: Newsosaur blog through Poynter Romenesko

The Washington Times will cease publication of its Saturday edition, the Associated Press reports, urging readers to rely instead on its website for news.

Executive editor John Solomon attributed the move to the paper's morphing identity from a print newspaper to a full multimedia company, and to low circulation on Saturday.

The Times' desire to diversify has sprung several new initiatives. Among the changes: a reduced-price electronic subscription ($40 compared to the $104 print one); a bolstered website unveiled last week; a redesigned daily edition available Monday; and expanding partnerships with television and radio stations.

"We're striving to become a profitable newspaper," Solomon said.

Source: Associated Press through Editor & Publisher

The Times of London published today its first issue featuring a full-color, revamped design, Stephen Brook of the Guardian reports.

The new design will affect the Monday to Friday paper, not the Saturday edition, and will include color-coded sections, an expanded features section, and more two-page spreads. According to Brook, journalists at the Times have been told to focus on "longer pieces or short news items," and to avoid "mid-length stories."

The redesign is approximately a year and a half removed from the Times' most recent renovation, a switch in font, and almost four years from its switch from a broadsheet to a tabloid format.

The Rupert Murdoch-owned paper will continue redesigning until September.

Source: The Guardian

The Washington Times unveiled Tuesday a preview of its revamped website, tailored to facilitate user interaction and allow readers a more personalized experience. The renovation marks the Times' switch from a "newspaper enterprise to a full media company offering news 24/7," said the Times' press release.

Most prominent among the new features is the News Cube, a design that enables readers to flip through articles in two ways: vertically, through general topics (Business, Sports - traditional news sections), or horizontally, through news themes adapted to specific interests (family issues, video games, the military). These news themes will include all stories written by the Washington Times since 1999.

The Times will also introduce a question forum and social networking communities monitored by citizens "who function as the bloggers-in-chief and moderators," said the release.

The prototype launched today will enable the paper to get feedback from readers before the print edition is relaunched on June 2, along with an e-edition of the print newspaper.

Source: Business Wire, press release

Trinity Mirror continues its company-wide relaunch of regional newspaper websites as it revamps the Hounslow Chronicle in west London.

The redesigned site includes the hyperlocal community blog feature pioneered by the Evening Gazette in Teesside - the feature undeniably boosted the Evening Gazette's traffic and helped it engage its local community.

Users can contribute content to the hyperlocal sites, and the newspaper intends to use to reverse publish this content in print products (see today's example with The Hartford Courant in the US).

More and more newspapers around the world are implementing these types of hyperlocal community portals and then publishing users' content in specific print editions, a model which seems to be successful both as a business venture and an editorial product.   

Source: Press Gazette

The Arab Media Group is relaunching its Al Bayan newspaper, the oldest Arabic daily newspaper in the UAE.

Changes include a new color layour, daily supplement, and two weekly supplements.

The 'Five Senses' daily supplement will carry local and global entertainment news. The weekly Friday supplement, 'Maraya', will carry news and editorial opinions on politics. The Sunday supplement, 'Masarat', will cover local and international cultural affairs.

"The relaunch comes in response to the evolution witnessed in all sectors of UAE society, as well as the unique combination of multiple cultures in the country. We recognized the need for a daily newspaper that is capable of understanding the needs of such a diverse audience," said Abdullatif Al Sayegh, CEO of AMG.

The goal of the relaunch is for Al Bayan to extent outside of the UAE and establish itself as an outlet for the region.

Source: AME Info through IFRA Executive News Service