Tribune single-copy tabloid debuts today to acclaim
The Chicago Tribune launched its new parallel tabloid edition today.
On the left is today’s broadsheet edition, which home subscribers received. On the right is the new “To-Go” edition that single-copy buyers find at newsstands, convenience stores, news racks and so on:
A closer look at the tab front:
The back page, of course, is the sports “front”:
Steve Dorsey of SND/Update has a look at today’s first edition, including inside pages. Check it out here.
Editor & Publisher’s Mark Fitzgerald posted a review of today’s tab edition. He writes:
Subscribers are now getting the second-best paper.
The Tribune’s tabloid is organized better than its broadsheet version, which was redesigned in late September. The news/ad mix is undoubtedly the same 50/50 split Tribune Co. dailies moved to over the summer. But in the tab the news content doesn’t seem like an afterthought as it often looks in the broadsheet, where ads can appear to dominate editorial.
The Tribune’s mix of alternative story-telling methods — charticles, maps, annotated numbers — with traditional reporting occasionally seems awkward and unfocused in the broadsheet. Filling up a tabloid page, though, the alternatives fulfill their purpose.
Fitzgerald says that pages in the tab are better organized, jumps work better and the Trib’s columnists get better play.
Design consultant Ron Reason went a step further and queried associate editor Joyce Winnecke about the changes and how they were implemented. Find that Q&A here.