First look -- Baltimore Sun redesign

i love it, too. the color makes the content more identifiable and organizes the pages nicely. clean typography, nice balance between white space and content. the four-column grid will actually reduce options in a good way -- forces you to give ONE story a good ride rather than allowing you to jam a bunch of so-so stuff on the page. am neutral/split on the full-body column sigs -- i like it in terms of marketing the columnists as personalities, but they do take up a lot of space and, day after day, they'll get old really fast.

overall, a solid A-minus, and way, way better than the offerings from Orlando and Fort Lauderdale. And no, I don't think it'll make a difference in circulation either way.

 

I'm a reader and as much as I like colour, this design blows. All of a sudden the design people are running the show.

I get the "personality" from the actual writing.

Sorry, maybe I'm just an old fart but geez, it gives me a headache.

It's like trying to read a newspaper on acid.

 

We were somewhere near Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the outrageous design began to take hold ...

 

"Forces you" is correct. It removes the ability to play that day's news according to its relative importance. In a traditional A-1 format, while you have to lead with something every day, there are all kinds of things you can do to keep things in proportion. I'd rather have the flexibility to blow things out when the news demands it and exercise some judgment when it doesn't. As U.S. tabloids struggle as businesses more than most, I can't understand why broadsheets think the answer is to imitate them. I don't think there's any evidence that readers prefer it when we shout at them. If there were, I'd say fine, go to it.

 

I want to see it person, rather than a pdf file before I pass judgement. But at first glance, not a big fan.

 

I'm like, meh. Not a big fan of the inside centerpiece. There's a reason inside stories are inside. But whatever.