Globe and Mail redesign today

Has anyone seen the paper? Here's a column by editor-in-chief Ed Greenspon on the proposed changes. It includes new hirings, apparently, which is always a positive.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070421.wgreenspon21/BNStory/National/home

 

Dammit. The one morning I'm up early enough for a Tim Hortons breakfast sandwich and I don't go down to the 7-11 and buy the paper and Tims for a coffee.

Now I'll go buy the paper and a coffee, but I won't get the sandwich - the greatest food ever invented.

 

Actually, I'm looking at the front(a PDF online) and I'm not a fan of it design-wise. It looks like it is back in the 1980s or something with the rules in between columns of text and the byline style. The whole thing looks cluttered, but then, they're printing on a smaller-sized format as well.

 

Seems like every newspaper is printing on smaller paper now - at least in Canada. It saves money. And makes money because the paper's ad rates don't change.

Where can the PDF be found?

 

Here's a JPEG...

 

I could get used to it. I'm not against it.

 

Uggghhhhhllleeeee

Gray and grayer...

 

I don't have a lot of experience reading Canadian papers, but are this paper's headlines normally this small? And the space between the head and the copy, well, ew. And while I don't mind the masthead not being the top element on the page, the Globe Life tease gives it the appearance of double flags, which can be confusing.

But those interest rates on the bottom-page ad look good!

 

This is on the new Berliner format, right?
If it is, you don't have a lot of room to play, imagine a 3/5 broadsheet.
I think only one paper in America has switched over to tha format, but it is very popular in Europe.
And I hate rules, vertical or horizontal. I think they are distracting. So I'm not a fan, but that's just me.

 

It's 12 inches, not sure if that's quite a Berliner or not. I do know that the Detroit Free Press is about the same size and I found it much cleaner than this.

The size of the headlines and the bizarre use of white space is certainly different. I also notice they have no framing on any of their photos. The rules do appear throughout the paper as well.

I know some people who used to work at the Globe for internships hated the paginating system they had. It wasn't Quark or InDesign, but something older. Maybe the program is a limitation, or maybe they switched as well.

 

Ya, the subheads either need to come down and be centred, or the head and sub both need to come down.

As for the headlines themselves, yes. It seems everywhere I've worked have small headlines. It drives me nuts.

 

FLUSH THOSE HEDS DAMMIT!

That's what is driving me the craziest about this design. That, and the big thick bar over every hed. The eye should be directed to the heds, not the big honking 12-point monstrosities hanging over them.