First look: Redesign of the Washington Post
Today, the Washington Post launched a redesign.
Long the epitome of understated class, the Post became just a little bit more classy overnight.
It’s not a major redesign, but then again, we didn’t expect one. When this thing was announced back in February, it was referred to as a “tweak.” And a tweak is that the Post got. And it’s a good thing, too — the Post didn’t need a major overhaul.
The redesign was executed by an in-house team of Ed Thiede, Dennis Brack, Justin Ferrell, Janet Michaud and Debra Leithauser in collaboration with Roger Black and his studio.
Dennis Brack, the Post’s design director, was kind enough to send us a few key pages of today’s debut front.
On the left is Sunday’s front. On the right is today’s:
Click any of today’s art, by the way, for a larger view.
At first glance, the changes aren’t major at all. Which makes sense: If there’s one paper in the country that really doesn’t need a massive visual overhaul, it’s the immaculately designed Washington Post.
Here’s a much larger look at the new front page:
Changes to page one:
- The weather moves from the upper left ear to a spot below the nameplate, still in the upper left.
- The nameplate itself is a bit larger. The reduction of clutter above the rule makes the nameplate seem cleaner.
- Extra decks have been added to the headline style to increase scan-ability.
- Headline styles have been changed. Features story headlines are now italic and centered. News heds are flush left.
- The promos and index at the bottom of the page have been cleaned up.
The most outstanding change, perhaps, is to the body copy. As executive editor Marcus Brauchli writes in his column today:
You might notice that the typeface we use in our columns is a little bit easier to read. It’s an upgrade of Scotch Roman, a typeface used in newspapers since the nineteenth century, redrawn for clearer reproduction.
On the left is the Post’s previous body copy, Post Roman. On the right is the news font, Miller Daily Three:
In an online Q&A with readers today, Brauchli wrote:
Q. What was the process you used to select the new print font? I was immediately struck by the increased legibility, though the change was so subtle it took me some time to identify precisely why.
A. We tested a number of fonts that were similar to our previous typeface, showing them to readers and examining them for readability. Not everyone, I should say, thinks the new typeface is easier to read. It is slightly larger and airier than our previous typeface. But one of the qualities that should make it more readable–it’s cut a little thinner–means there is less ink in the characters on the paper. If our ink isn’t dense, that can make the type look faint. Our objective was to improve the readability. If we conclude that we aren’t doing that, we may have to shift to a slightly thicker version of the new typeface.
Here is the new editorial page, inside the A section:
Also changing are the Post’s inside page headers, beefed-up with promo material inside each section. A before-and-after look at the sports topper:
Here are the new Metro and Style hedders:
…And there are new column sigs, presented in a not-quite-stipple-but-still-classic-black-and-white way:
Here’s today’s new Metro front. Again, click for a larger look:
Here’s the new Style front:
On the left is Sunday’s sports front. On the right is today’s:
Here’s a closer look at the new sports front:
Inside today’s Post is a special section detailing the changes:
Interesting is the reaction to the design by the Post’s own media columnist, Howard Kurtz. Kurtz today wrote in a live chat:
I don’t think it’s that bad. Kind of like the illegitimate spawn of the Wall Street Journal and the Baltimore Sun.
Download a PDF of this special section here.
Find the Editor & Publisher story here. Read the AP story here.
Read the Washington Examiner’s take on the redesign here.
Find a letter from the executive editor about the design here. Find a letter from the publisher here. Find a Q&A with the executive editor here.
October 19th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
One thing that jumps out at me is the removal of the byline credit. No longer will readers know if the writer is from the staff, from its foreign service or a freelancer. That being said, it’s a cleaner look (bravo, guys) and the byline itself brings it in line with the New York Times and Los Angeles Times.
Thank God, they kept the dateline (unlike LAT’s bizarre “reporting from …”), but finally killed the date in it — for example, a story before would read “BEIRUT, Oct. 17″; now, it reads only “BEIRUT” … something NYT got rid of two or three years ago. It honestly looks a lot like the LAT circa 2005.
Also, as WaPo’s copy desk chief, Bill Walsh, pointed out on Twitter last night: “We’ve Gone Downstyle. Oops. We’ve gone downstyle.” This is subtle to anyone beyond the copy desk (and hopefully the design desk), but for copy editors, it makes writing headlines a little easier; however, I’ll lament the lost of that skill. As far as I know, NYT is the only major paper to still write a headline like “At the Store, a Call For Humans” sted “At the store, a call for humans” … sorta bums me out the more I think about it.
I picked up the paper today; and, yes, the body type is 200% better than before. I can read columns much easier than before (truly non-scientific).
And no more Giza. A smart choice, ’cause it was quite dated.
All in all, a win for the Post and Roger Black. There’s people in the design community (cough) that could learn a thing or two about how the paper carried out its redesign process. Time, planning, prototyping, time (and more time!) equals success.
October 19th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Thanks, Daniel, for providing the perspective and commentary I was too damn wired with beer to offer tonight.
Seriously, dude, let me know when you start a blog that includes all of visual journalism including design, copy editing and photography. I’ll gladly dump my entire operation if I thought I could hand off to someone as thoughtful and as inclusive as you.
I had another rough day today. So I’m sitting here — at MacRib’s, the hotel restaurant here in Johannesburg — drinking way too much beer and trying to get ahead on the next few days’ birthday posts. This blog is too freakin’ much work at times. But I’ve always felt that it was a worthy service for the visual journalism community. Especially since Mark Friesen “retired.”
Young guys like you, however, are were it’s at. I’m EXTREMELY tickled that you just got a plum job at the OCR and I hope you enjoy the hell out of it. What’s more, I hope you stay there long enough to earn a freakin’ enormous severance whenever you decide to retire, at age 69 or whatever, in the 2040s.
You’re the future of journalism, my friend. Whether you feel like it or not, you — and your contemporaries — are the future of journalism.
The good news: You’ll have jobs. The bad news: The rest of us are pinning our hopes on you.
Thanks for your comments, my friend. You’re wonderful.
And excuse the typos tonight, please. I’ve had waaaaay too many Castle drafts.
:)
October 19th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Charles, I think I speak for everyone when I say thank you for keeping this blog going. It’s first thing I look at (after Facebook, of course), and it’s the ONLY place to get news that matters to me, a true-blue newspaper editor. You got the pulse of this business, and I don’t think I could do half as good a job. You’re doing more than a worthy service … it’s God’s work. (And I’m not even religious.)
Btw, I did start a blog, but it’s only for my trip out West. … Shameless plug is http://www.thedanielhunt.com/blog
Maybe you need a co-blogger, set up like Deadspin! I’m sure there’s plenty of peeps like me who would sign up for that.
Thanks for the shout-out on the job, too. I’m super excited to working close to home and with some really great folks — I’m equally as happy to be copy editing again. Now I just have to pack, sell the furniture, etc. I have a total of four days (today, Tuesday, Oct. 26, Oct. 27) to do it.
But, seriously, how’s South Africa? Is MacRib’s a Mickey D’s knockoff? I could so go for a McRib sandwich right now, along with a St. Patrick’s Green McShake.
We gotta find a way to get you at ACES this year in Philly. I’ll message you about that!
Did you see Mario Garcia’s post on WaPo? I detect a little jealously. (http://garciamedia.com/blog/articles/download_all_of_pure_design_today/).
I can’t say enough about Roger Black’s work. There’s hints of what he wanted to do in L.A. back in 2000 in today’s Post, and I suspect there will be some more tricks up the paper’s sleeve this week. I’d be really curious to see some of the initial sketches on his dormant blog.
OK, back to packing … then it’s time for the Phillies to crush the Dodgers yet again. Go Phillies!
October 19th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Really beautiful upgrade. Still one of the most gorgeous newspapers anywhere.
October 20th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
It’s interesting (and refreshing) that they took away both ears, when most newspapers are trying to cram as much as they can above and around the nameplate.
Also, Daniel, the Wall Street Journal still does capped heds. I agree, they’re a little more elegant, but the Associated Press has worked hard to castrate all that is elegant about newspapers. From what I understand, the Post mostly follows AP style.
I think, in general, the “tweak” is great. It’s interesting to see the Post go with a slightly more kerned out font when most newspapers are trying smaller and tighter fonts (The New York Times gets 12 lines of text in four cm while most papers only get 11), but I can see how they can justify it if they are using less ink.
I think the sports scores at the top of the page are a good idea, but I’m not sure how well it works in other sections. I also think the columnist portraits are a bit much — the guy with the fedora is definitely trying to ham up the old-school reporter stereotype.
I think the only thing I really have a problem with, though, is the new editorial page. I couldn’t find an old one to compare it with, but I think they went a bit to far with the retro look here. It just ends up looking stodgy. Putting the comic in the middle of the page like that is very weird, and what’s up with the “An Independent Newspaper” thing — has that always been there?
All in all, a good effort, and I was surprised at the amount of positive feedback from readers. It was smart of them not to tackle a full-on redesign. That never pleases anybody.
P.S. I totally love the return of the multiple-deck heds.
October 20th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
In reply to Will Davis’ comment “I think the sports scores at the top of the page are a good idea, but I’m not sure how well it works in other sections.”, as a long time Washington Post subscriber, it doesn’t work in the other sections. I find it distracting and annoying and I hope it goes away soon. Here’s an idea…use that space for more news!
I also agree with his comment on the editorial page design. It’s difficult to read and it looks stodgy to me too.
The removal of byline credit is one of the things that I dislike the most. I want to know exactly who these writers are–are they reporters for The Post or just some person they dragged in off the street?
Lastly, the poor WSJ-like columnist portraits are really nasty–take a look at the editor and publisher portraits in the redesign guide pdf as both look like they had a waffle iron overlaid on their faces…’-}}
All in all, it’s not as badly done as the “redesign” of The Washington Post Sunday magazine (ugh!) and I guess I’ll probably get used to it…
October 21st, 2009 at 7:57 pm
This seems like a good place to give credit where it is due to the design team at the Post. I’ve never before worked with a smarter, more pleasant group of designers. Dennis Brack is truly a great newspaper designer, a visual journalist and a fine typographer. Janet Michaud is brilliant. (She did the final magazine design, which has gotten much undeserved flack, considering what a giant improvement it is.) Justin Ferrell is a real leader who is bringing the news sections new strength and openness. Ed Thiede provided momentum and Deb Leithauser (an actual editor) pushed things through that no one though could get through.
And then there is David Berlow and Matthew Carter who sweetened the headline fonts, and designed a new Postoni Titling, used for the section headings.
As Walter Bernard (who was responsible for the last big change at the Post) once said, the proof of a redeisgn is in the execution. Wait a while and you can tell if it works or not. I feel like we’ve extended Walter’s and Mike Keegan’s direction, and made a platform that will help the newspaper survive the economy and the terrible ad market.
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Note: Much nonsense has been said about the body type. The fact is that we tried many fonts, and tested them three times on the press. Miller won, and despite a minor concern that it’s over familiar, the management agreed that we should go for the most readable typeface, and let the blogs fall where they may.
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And just wait till you see the new web reader—to be announced soon!