Charles Apple

Editor & Publisher reported two redesigns Monday — one Web-based; the other print.

E&P’s Joe Strupp reports that the Washington Post has hired The Wonder Factory to overhaul its web site:

“It is bigger than any other [redesign] since building it in the first place,” [James Brady, executive editor of washingtonpost.com] says about his site, which first launched in 1996. “We are trying to fill it with the strategies we’ve emphasized the past few years — reader engagement, multi-media and providing useful data bases for our readers.”

Brady had few specifics on Wonder Factory’s arrangement with the Post, but said they had been working with the firm since October and hoped to have the new look ready to launch before Election Day next November.

…Brady said the redesign will be aimed mostly at easing the transition from one part of the site to another. “How everything fits together, we are trying to have a flow better between an article and the home page,” he explained. “The site represents who we were, not who we’ve become.”

The Wonder Factory has redesigned Web sites for Newsweek, National Geographic, America Online and Martha Stewart.

Meanwhile, over on the print side, an unbylined story in E&P announced that a redesigned, 48-inch-web Wisconsin State Journal launched Monday, with:

…a themed features section intended to attract younger readers, and a front page setting for stories its editor says will be more “muscular” and have “sharper edges” to its enterprise reporting.

Ellen Foley, editor of the 87,000-circulation Madison daily, said “amazingly,” the reaction to the extensive redesign was generally positive. The biggest complaint revolves around the need, because of the narrower web width, to shave space from the syndicated Cryptoquote puzzle. Readers said there’s not enough space to write the decoded letters, she said.

“So it goes to show you: we journalists work so very hard on the dense work of reporting and watchdog writing and all that other fun stuff — and it’s the Cryptoquote you get all the phone calls on,” Foley said with a laugh.

E&P reports that the State Journal narrowed its web width because the Chicago Tribune went to a 48-inch web. The State Journal is a regional printer for the Trib, E&P reports.

Sadly, we didn’t see the State Journal today at the Newseum. We’re trying for before-and-afters. Stay tuned.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 at 3:46 am and is filed under News design, Newspapers, Redesigns, Visual Editors, VizEds Blog, Web news design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.