Orlando Sentinel to be the first Trib paper redesigned under corporate mandate
Reuters reported Thursday that the Tribune company will redesign its papers across the board, balance its newshole 50/50 with ads and possibly lay off as much as 2 percent of its staff.
The whole story is here, in three takes. But we’ll stay focused on the design aspects…
Reuters’ Robert MacMillan wrote:
The company also plans to add more statistics, graphics and photographs to make the papers more visually appealing, a move pioneered by Gannett Co. Inc’s USA Today in the early 1980s. That move was seen at the time as a gateway toward less serious news reporting, but also helped make USA Today the largest-circulation paper in the United States.
The first Tribune paper to get an overhaul will be the Orlando Sentinel, starting June 22nd, and the rest — including the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and The Sun in Baltimore — would follow by the end of September.
Richard Pérez-Peña of The New York Times reports today:
In his note to employees, [Tribune owner Sam] Zell wrote that Tribune papers would be redesigned, beginning with The Orlando Sentinel, on June 22. Surveys show readers want “maps, graphics, lists, ranking and stats,†he wrote. “We’re in the business of satisfying customers, and we will respond to what they say they want.â€
Hmm. Seems like every time we redesign a paper, readers indignantly accuse us of “trying to be more like USA Today.” This is the first time in a long while I’ve heard of a paper setting out to be more like USA Today.
[Side note: I read USA Today every day over lunch. Convenient whipping boy, but fine paper.]
The newshole thing seems more troubling. Again, from the Times story:
[Zell and CEO Randy Michaels] said the company would aim for a 50-50 split between ads and news across all the news pages (excluding classified ads and advertising supplements). Mr. Michaels said this would mean eliminating 500 pages of news a week across all of the company’s 12 papers.
“If we take, for instance, The Los Angeles Times to a 50-50 ratio, we will be eliminating about 82 pages a week,†Mr. Michaels said, leaving the smallest papers of the week at 56 news pages.
Innovations consultant Juan Antonio Giner expressed his disappointment in his blog:
Tribune is a mess.
The bosses are crazy.
And the staff morale is lower than ever.
This is the end of a newspaper chain.
First it was Knight-Ridder.
Now it’s Tribune.
Sharp-eyed readers, of course, already knew something was going on at the Sentinel. You saw the want ad posted Monday, right?
At the Orlando Sentinel, a paper recently chosen as Tribune Co.’s “petri dish” for newspaper innovation, we’re about to launch the first phase of an ambitious redesign and we’re expanding our visual ranks with an exciting new position. By “redesign” we mean reinventing the art of storytelling, not just an aesthetic overhaul. This new mandate has electrified our newsroom in an all-out-war on the status quo…
Petri dish? Or death of a newspaper chain?
We’ll all find out, I guess. Exactly 16 days from now!
June 6th, 2008 at 10:52 am
There’s a right way to do this: Establish the Sunday paper as classic golden-age journalism, with everything people think of when they think of a great Sunday paper. Then rename the daily edition The Essentials. Then design it and market it with the idea that Smart People Are Busy Too.
A marketing plan of throwing stuff overboard isn’t likely to drum up business.
June 6th, 2008 at 11:06 am
At my publication, the ad split is about 62-38 ads and it seems pretty workable. 50-50 certainly isn’t the end of the world — especially if it saves money. I for one would rather have more money for real journalists to write stories than fill a bunch of pages with wire.
June 6th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Somehow I doubt the additional revenue from a 50-50 split would end up going to journalists or even going back into the paper.
Remember when some people were actually excited about Zell entering the business?
June 6th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
In my sections, I currently work with a roughly 50-50 ad split as well. It hasn’t stopped us from producing really good journalism in our zones. We still have great stories, photo packages, etc. It just causes us to rethink how we present things and that’s not a bad idea.
I don’t think being more like USA Today is such a bad thing. I’ve always liked that paper, ever since I was in the eighth grade looking through the Life section for the latest Nielsen ratings to see how Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman performed that week (yes, geek at 13!) I like random tidbits of information and have always gotten more out of boxes, sidebars, maps, etc. than a 30-40 inch main story. Thing is, not every story has to take up a half-page of jump space and that’s what I’m finding a lot of reporters do just that on issues that either are so complicated that a very small percentage of the readers will understand, or they’re just boring. I don’t want a 20-inch story of what happened at the last city council meeting. Just a small 1 to 2 inch summary with bulleted points of what went on will suffice. It doesn’t mean I’m any less informed. I might be even more so since I’ll actually read the thing.
I’m not ashamed to say that I love USA Today and once upon a time, my dream was to be a reporter for it. I don’t think their way of presenting news is any less valid than the traditional gray ladies.
June 6th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
People will still read long stories. On the internet. That’s where I read them.
June 7th, 2008 at 1:13 am
What can I say, its a shame the redesign we launched into in earnest about two months ago has now gotten caught up in all this talk about newshole cuts (none of which were factored into the product we’ll launch June 22). It’s been absolutely exhilarating working in an environment in which experimentation is being embraced at all levels. Our newsroom had been electrified by the challenge. And we made an outstanding hire today on the job posted above. It’s amazing how things can change from one day to the next. Stay tuned, it’s going to be quite a ride!
Bonita Burton
AME/Visuals, Orlando Sentinel
June 21st, 2008 at 11:00 pm
The new design doesn’t even look like a newspaper. It looks like an internet-influenced mess. The Orlando Sentinel may be one thing, but to impose this look on the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and the Baltimore Sun is horrifying. The Los Angeles Times has a refined look, the Tribune lost some of its luster with recent tweaks and the Sun is already colorful and energized. This Zellous over reliance on maps, charts, graphics, et. al. will only contribute to the downfall of newspapers. Readers still want to read, they don’t want to look at a Pixar production. Even the quintessential quick read, USA Today, has more text on the front page than this first rendition of the Tribune Co. comic books.