Charles Apple

Robert Casey, AME for visuals at the Sacramento Bee, sent me samples of the Bee’s new redesign that debuted July 29.

I didn’t get the pages until Monday and then I’ve had only one day off in which to process them. And that day, I spent teaching.

So this weekend was the first chance I’ve gotten to post. My apologies.

Here is the last old-look Bee and the July 30 front page, which would have been Day Two:

Here’s a closer look at the new front:

And that new nameplate:

Oh, yeah. The old version had a real late-70s/early 80s vibe to it. The new one is much better. And I’m glad they kept the little cartoon bee. It add a personal touch.

Bee AME Robert Casey
—

Robert writes:

I changed all our typefaces. Blew them all up.

* Miller Daily Two for text
* Miller Headline
* Miller Display (flags)
* Benton Sans (sans serif contrasts and labels)
* Poynter Agate (sports, biz, weather…we had been using a hodgepodge.)

The old metro and new Our Region fronts:

A closer look at Our Region:

Robert writes:

Our Region, B, is a combo now of local, regional, business. Sunday Business is the one day biz gets a cover.

The first Sunday business front from Aug. 3:

Heh. Life’s a lot easier for a designer when you can work with a nice illustration by Robert Dorrell.

Robert Casey writes:

We added space to the A section for destination/landing pages for nation
and world. Editorial and op ed moved into A section.

Here’s the new daily A3 (which also features a nice graphic centerpiece by Mr. Dorrell):

Here’s the first Sunday A3:

Space was added to the sports section, Robert says. Before-and-after sports fronts:

A closer look at the first new Sunday sports front:

Some prototyped inside sports pages:

Robert writes:

Our Sunday perspective section, Forum, was rethemed California Forum and gives more of a state emphasis.

Robert writes:

The features sections are all themed “Living Here” and have specific
subjects per day, such as Books & Media, Health & Fitness, Outbound,
Family.

Old and new features sections:

And a closer look at the first new Sunday features section front:

Robert writes:

The travel broadsheet died and was combined with the Sunday arts tab to create Explore.

Here is the first Explore front and an inside page:

Robert writes:

Ticket remains the Friday entertainment book.

A prototype Ticket front, along with a prototype Explore front:

Reaction has been pretty favorable, Robert says. He sent along comments they received from readers over the redesign’s first week:

* It’s radically unique, and I mean that in a good way. [From a former Bee
staffer]

* My manicurist, about 40, waved it at me this morning at 8 a.m. She said she loved it and so do her clients.

* Although I am nearly 73 years old, the changes are terrific.

* Although overall the “new” Bee is much easier to read, I do have one question for you. This is the second day of the new look, and I have yet to receive my free magnifying glass for the comics. Will it be in the mail soon?

* It’s fun to read the Bee again!”

* The smaller size makes one feel a bit less guilty about the use of newsprint, even when recycled, it’s just a better feeling.

* It’s just wonderful to be able to pick up the paper and not sneeze or get my hands dirty.  The layout is a wonderful improvement.  I just love the paper!

* Why do you continue to make the comics smaller and smaller?

* The Bee is promoting thinking that the ability to pay for and drink wine is a man’s right and the good life.

* You’ve done it-you’ve given your readers a reason to want both the website and the hard copy. That could arguably be compared to some kind of Houdini trick. And I don’t even feel the “lost inch.” You managed to make something smaller so much bigger.

* Newspapers preserve literacy and democracy, to say nothing of some really good recipes, and we need as many newspapers as we can keep going.

The Bee’s public editor, Armando Acuña, wrote in his column last Sunday:

By far, however, the No. 1 criticism was that the new all-color comics were too hard to read because the lettering was too small, especially for some cartoon strips such as Doonesbury.

“The print is so small on the comics page that I can hardly see it,” said Whitney Donnelly in a comment repeated by many others. “Seems you made the page small and the same time put more items on the page, resulting in something I can’t see.”

Well, Whitney, the editors feel your pain, too, said managing editor Joyce Terhaar, and agree that some of the comics are, indeed, too small, so changes are afoot to make them larger and easier to read. The eventual transformation, though, may take a little while, she said.

Among the tweaks Bee editors made after the debut, according to Acuña: The Sudoku puzzle had been placed in the middle of a page, ruining the quarter-fold that all newspaper puzzle readers value so much.

Pause for laughter from all of you who have been through this…

And then there was this amusing note. I’ve added italics for emphasis:

Because of a glitch, listings for several local companies – including The McClatchy Co. – were left off the new stock page. They have been added back.

Find that column here.

Congratulations, Bob — and to your editor, my old Raleigh colleague Melanie Sill — for the successful redesign. Here’s hoping your numbers go nowhere but up.

Read a Q&A by Melanie about the changes here. Find a video in which Bee editors describe the redesign here.

Read our earlier post about this redesign here.

Here’s a collection of pages — most of which appear above — but in higher-resoultion format. As always, tag the thumbnail.

 
 

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 10th, 2008 at 12:50 pm and is filed under News design, Redesigns, VizEds Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.