Charles Apple

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is launching a new free broadsheet that will be delivered to non-subscribers beginning this fall.

The Evening Edge will be delivered Thursdays to more than 375,000 metro Atlanta homes, says Will Alford, the AJC’s Prototype Design Manager.

For the most part, Evening Edge will repackage and tailor existing content from the core newspaper. The first edition will hit driveways Oct. 4. A companion Web site is scheduled to launch in November.

This Evening Edge prototype was designed by Will Alford. Below are a few inside pages. Click on the thumbnails for a larger view:

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Evening Edge is designed to provide busy people with help in planning their evenings and weekends. It provides ideas and recipes for quick dinners, guidance on what to do with (or without) kids in the evening — including spending quality time with their plasma TVs — weekend car trips, parenting tips, shopping opportunities and more. It replaces the more narrowly focused Thursday Buyer’s Edge.

The AJC’s popular in-paper Buyer’s Edge section focusing on shops, gadgets and consumer news will continue to appear on Saturdays.

Will agreed to answer a few questions for us:

Q. What fonts are you using? Is this different from the usual AJC font set?

A. Yes, it’s different from the core newspaper’s fonts. I’m using Bodega from Font Bureau for headlines, display text and such. All body text is BentonSans.

Bodega is only for use in this product. Because the audience is nonsubscribers — and in many cases very light readers — there was an effort to differentiate it somewhat from the look of the AJC. Even so, the AJC brand added value for most readers for the topics included — particularly food, dining, travel and local events listings.

Bodega is meant to be friendlier, less newsy and is perhaps slightly more feminine.

Q. These pages seem much more open than most AJC pages I’ve seen — and I see quite a few, considering I’m in town lot, visiting in-laws. Were you given free reign to use more white space in the Evening Edge?

A. We did tabloid and broadsheet versions, and the openness of the broadsheet pages were appealing for many folks. Because the audience is non-AJC readers who will be picking it up off their driveway as they come home in the evenings after work, it was important that the design not add to their stress but to be a calming moment at day’s end.

I should add that the AJC’s Shane Blatt worked with me on the early brainstorming for this project.

Q. Where will the Evening Edge staff work? Downtown? Or in one of the bureaus?

A. The staff will work downtown at 72 Marietta Street.

Will says a number of new positions are being created to support the new venture. I’m posting the actual ads in VizEds Employment forum, but here’s a quick glimpse of what the fine folks in Atlanta are looking for:

Editor, Evening Edge
This editor generally uses content originally produced by AJC staff and AJC free-lancers to develop the mix of stories, photos, graphics and other elements appropriate to the special mission of this section. He/she also must collaborate closely with designers, graphics editors, copy editors and slots to assure the very best presentation and readability possible. This editor also collaborates with content departments to make sure that content needs of the section are being met.

Assistant editor/designer
Supports the Section Editor by providing design and visual journalism skills to a free weekly section focused on dining and recipes. He/she must collaborate with Print Department colleagues, in particular working closely with other designers, graphics editors, copy editors and slots to ensure the very best presentation and readability possible.

Online channel manager
Responsible for shaping, publishing and managing editorial content that appears on our Web sites, as well as coordinating news coverage and assisting with product development… An interest in food and/or dining is preferred.

Online information specialist
Gather and report information to build pages and features online that may take the form of guides, lists, databases, capsule information, short formatted stories and more. …Will be trained in all the tools and responsibilities of the Information Desk, but will be asked to concentrate primarily on maintaining and updating the restaurant database, proposed new recipe databases and features for a food-centric website.

If you’re interested in any of these, Will asks that you apply by Sept. 1 to:

Rana L. Cash
Newsroom Recruiter
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
72 Marietta St. N.W.
8th Floor
Atlanta, Ga.
30303

In addition, Will suggests you contact Dee Dee D’Asaro, the AJC’s Senior Editor for Visuals if you want to know more. [ ddasaro@ajc.com ]

Sounds terrific. Best wishes, Will!

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UPDATE

Will takes issue with the part of my original post where I said this sounded like what we used to call a “TMC” product. He writes:

It’s an SMC product, not TMC

Ah. Never heard of an SMC product. Thanks for the correction.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 14th, 2007 at 5:33 am and is filed under News design, Newspapers, VizEds Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.