Charles Apple

Melissa Angle of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution showed off a few prototypes in the SND “State of the Redesign” webinar today in Syracuse.

Jonathan Berlin of the Chicago Tribune and Gayle Grin of Toronto’s National Post also spoke. Their redesigns are already on the streets, of course. So we’ll focus on the AJC material.

A warning, though: Melissa stressed these are only early prototypes. Actual mileage may vary. Check your local listings for time and station.

Here’s a peek at the new daily product on the left and the new Sunday paper on the right:

This is taken not from Melissa’s presentation, but from a marketing video posted by the AJC.

Likewise, these thumbnails are taken from a marketing PDF distributed by the paper:

The pages below are taken from Melissa’s slide show. On the left is a live page. On the right is a prototyped Sunday page that would appear to closely match the one shown in the promotional materials:

Here’s the daily paper. On the right, a prototype from Melissa’s show. On the left is a live page from December:

The AJC redesign project — led by consultant Lucie LaCava — took the strategy of flipping the business model, Melissa said. Online is the new mass-media; print becomes a niche product.

Research was begun to learn how readers use their Sunday paper. And because so many people in Atlanta call it the AJC, why not go with that name as a brand?

Some early attempts at a new Sunday look:

They look very Tribune-company-ish, don’t they?

The AJC went through a number of flashy, magazine-like approaches:

The redesign team reviewed each round with a panel of focus groups, online feedback groups and observing readers with the prototypes. Gradually, they began to zero in on what folks wanted:

Even within each format, approaches to display and design were tested. Below are three takes on the same front — ranging from big and splashy on the left to much more toned-down and text-oriented on the right:

What they found was that readers didn’t like the large photos.

The result has been denser prototypes, with more text pushed to the cover. The volume of the visuals has been turned down a few notches.

Again, here is what appears to be a later prototype on the right. On the left is a live page:

The redesigned AJC, Melissa says, will showcase deep reporting, better navigation, anchoring and “chaptering in the book,” and will represent a change in the print focus from “what” to “why.”

Also, there will be a mix of local, national and international news on the front page, as requested by the test subjects. “Local in a national or international context,” Melissa called it.

Another before-and-after look, with a Sunday prototype on the right, but a live AJC page on the left:

Melissa referred to the results as “density by design.”

Will Alford, the AJC’s prototype design manager, chimed in that the fonts being used are Publico by Christian Schwartz and Boomer by the Font Bureau.

A live metro page on the left and a Sunday metro front prototype on the right:

That same Sunday prototype is on the right. On the left is a prototype for the daily metro front:

A live biz page is on the left, compared to a Sunday biz prototype:

Again, the right page is the same as above. On the left is a prototype daily biz front:

Before-and-after Sunday Sports:

And a before-and-after look at the entertainment section.

That’s all we have. Latest we’ve heard is that the redesign will launch in mid-March, but that’s not official just yet. If we get more info  — or, perhaps, larger prototype pages — we’ll post ‘em.

View the AJC’s promotional video for the redesign here. Click on “the Power of Print.” Download a PDF marketing preview here.

Find the transcript of the entire SND redesign chat/webinar — and the accompanying slide show — here.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 6th, 2009 at 4:08 pm and is filed under Redesigns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.