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Journal redesign coming Sept. 14
Width to be narrower; typeface to be bigger
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The Journal's Redesign
Published: September 6, 2009
Next week, the Winston-Salem Journal will introduce a new approach for presenting the news in its printed edition -- a fairly dramatic one, some longtime readers might say. And we'll unveil a new look.
Those of you reading this online, which we know is a growing number, won't see dramatic changes on the Web site right away. But it will be cleaner and easier to navigate.
We see the changes as evolutionary, though perhaps at an accelerated pace. Our goal is to improve and speed up development of digital products, including journalnow.com, our new e-edition and mobile access to the Journal, which is where we think the news-consuming world is heading, without neglecting the still-dominant printed newspaper.
On Sept. 14, the width of the newspaper page is going to shrink 1 inch. The narrower web width, as we call it, is designed to lower our newsprint costs, which are significant. The cost of paper continues to be a major expense as we try to work our way out of one of the worst downturns in advertising since the 1980s. Almost all American newspapers are converting to the narrower width. Many already have.
Don't take all this as evidence of the printed newspaper's eventual demise, though. It's going to change, but it's not going away. We see a market for the printed newspaper for many years to come. We redesigned the printed newspaper to give readers things you've told us you want most, including a typeface that's easier to read and an emphasis on local reporting.
I'm going to summarize some of the things we're planning to do in the printed edition in this column, but watch for more specifics over the next week.
First. The new Journal will emphasize local news and our unique enterprise journalism more than ever. The redesigned front page will allow for two or three local stories and be heavy on art and graphics. So as not to ignore the nation and world, the new front page will include a strong display at the top of the page previewing the most important national and international stories inside.
The rest of the "A" section will include more local news in the first several pages of the A section -- on A4, for example, you'll find a second local front -- followed by a full page of national and world news, including national business news, with photos and graphics. The rest of the section will include the obituaries, the opinion page, op-ed page and weather. Local business news will be played with local news on A1 or elsewhere in the section, as appropriate.
In effect, the A-section will become a single, heftier "news" section with strong emphasis on local news.
Some features will move around. SAM will move to Page A2, for example. Stocks of local interest will be packaged with business news.
The second section, or "B" section, every day will become Sports.
The Living section will also take on more of a local flavor. Saturday will become a page with rotating themes, including religion, health, and technology, based on local reporting whenever possible. The Home page will move to Friday's Living section. And Lisa O'Donnell's popular biweekly "Get Out" column will move to Thursday's relish magazine.
There are many other moving parts in the new Journal that we will explain over the coming days and weeks. We want to know what you think. Some of you may not like these changes, and we'd like to hear from you, too. Many committed people in our newsroom have been working hard on this redesign for months. The paper will be smaller, but we think we've retooled for a new era, one that is designed to fit into the new world we now live in.
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