Design Re-boot

My paper is thinking about doing a redesign and I was wondering if anyone had any papers to reccommend that we can look at for ideas?

 

The St. Pete Times recently did one and it looks very clean.

 

http://www.starkadamdesign.com/newspapers/newspapers.html

Pegie Stark Adam commandeered our re-design. She's pretty good.

 

gotta get that slidexia checked out. for a minute i thought this thread was about redesigning boots.

 

There are so many facets to changing how a paper presents its content, it would be impossible to discuss here in brief.

In short, a redesign is not as cut and dry as just looking at other newspapers for ideas. You have to determine what you want to accomplish from a content level first. If you're just aiming to make your paper "pretty," then just go on newspagedesigner.com or newsuem.com, find what appeals to you and get inspired.

If you want to go deeper, then that takes a lot of work, time, careful thought and trial and error. It's always been my opinion that design/presentation is about the seventh or eighth most important aspect of any newspaper. Changing the way you deliver the news is going to impact so many other elements of the operation, and you must be respectful of those possibilities.

I've redesigned publications and started others from scratch. If you want to talk more specifically, feel free to PM me.

If you want to check out some great-looking papers, try:

* Boston Globe
* Portland Oregonian
* Toronto Globe and Mail
* San Jose Mercury News
* San Diego Union-Tribune
* Bend (Ore.) Bulletin (Small paper, but ambitious design)
* Lewiston (Maine) Sun Journal (Small paper, too, but an SND favorite)

Good luck.

 

The biggest mistake you can make going in is to look at what other papers are doing and cherry-pick which ideas you want to take. Sit down with your editors and figure out what YOU want to do content-wise, then go about deciding what design-solutions will accomplish that. Doing it the other way around is only going to hurt you in the long run.

 

This is a question best answered at:

www.wenalway.com

 

Exactly, just taking a few design elements and splashing them together half-assed doesn't really make a good redesign. Get all your people together, discuss what you want to change with the way you disseminate information and plan the thing out, so it all fits together. A good consultant on these things is sometimes worth the extra change too.

 

You could do like the Startlegram and turn your whole front cover into a tease page.

 

You've also got to agree upon some conclusions on WHY you're making the changes. Are they right for the reader? Will they make sense to the reader? Otherwise, you're just fluffing the pillows on a broken sofa. Make sure these are changes for the better.

Another thing: Make sure the changes are something you can sustain on a daily basis. It might *seem* like a great idea right now, let's say, to make every photo a cutout, but can your desk do it in an eight-hour shift? Can your desk do it if news breaks after 11:30 p.m.? Do you have enough writers to put together that daily 1A slice-of-life brite? Is there enough material to fill out that front-page rail every day?

One last thing: "Style and substance" not "style over substance" ... they're equal partners.

That said, I agree with the earlier poster who suggested the St. Petersburg Times (disclaimer: my wife is an editor there). I'll also suggest the Miami Herald, which also did a redesign about the same time and has a nice big-city-metro look ... I'll reserve judgment about the content, however. The Orlando Sentinel ain't too shabby, either. Yes, I'm Floridacentric.

 

Please don't.