Comments on: Vertical Nameplate? GADS! http://robertbohle.com/blog/vertical-nameplate-gads/ Here's what I think about that Sat, 21 May 2011 02:01:21 +0000 hourly 1 By: rsdavis http://robertbohle.com/blog/vertical-nameplate-gads/comment-page-1/#comment-73 rsdavis Fri, 03 Oct 2008 16:58:58 +0000 http://pageshare.newsdesignschool.com/2008/09/30/vertical-nameplate-gads/#comment-73 We've seen some pretty radical redesigns from the Tribune papers during their Sam Zell-mandated "Summer of Redesigns." The Chicago Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, S. Florida Sun-Sentinel, and the Hartford Courant. The redesigns are all unique, inventive, and attractive, but, as a reader, I don't think they really work. And I have to question the motives behind the redesigns. To pick on the Courant, I didn't see anything wrong with the previous version. The design was elegant and there was always a good mix of stories on the front. I think they tried to fix something that wasn't broken. (The Tribune, on the other hand, looked tired ... but I don't think a massive overhaul was necessary; maybe just some tweaking of the design philosophies and story selection.) Zell and the Tribune Co. want to make newspapers for people who don't read newspapers. They want to pull people away from the Web and back into the print, and I don't think that's going to happen. We, as an industry, ought to be making newspapers for people who love newspapers. They, after all, are our core customers, and these new-fangled flashy products will just annoy them. We’ve seen some pretty radical redesigns from the Tribune papers during their Sam Zell-mandated “Summer of Redesigns.” The Chicago Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, S. Florida Sun-Sentinel, and the Hartford Courant. The redesigns are all unique, inventive, and attractive, but, as a reader, I don’t think they really work. And I have to question the motives behind the redesigns.

To pick on the Courant, I didn’t see anything wrong with the previous version. The design was elegant and there was always a good mix of stories on the front. I think they tried to fix something that wasn’t broken. (The Tribune, on the other hand, looked tired … but I don’t think a massive overhaul was necessary; maybe just some tweaking of the design philosophies and story selection.)

Zell and the Tribune Co. want to make newspapers for people who don’t read newspapers. They want to pull people away from the Web and back into the print, and I don’t think that’s going to happen. We, as an industry, ought to be making newspapers for people who love newspapers. They, after all, are our core customers, and these new-fangled flashy products will just annoy them.

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