Charles Apple

Lost, perhaps, in all the discussions about the Tribune company redesigns this summer is a wonderful, wonderful redesign two weeks ago by the Wyoming Tribune Eagle in Cheyenne.

Last Thursday’s A1.
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We wrote about it a couple of weeks ago, but it’s time to check in and see how the folks in Cheyenne are doing.

Kiah Staley, the Tribune Eagle’s Assistant Managing Editor for Presentation, agreed to answer a few questions for us…

Q. The pages are looking fabulous! How is it that a small paper can consistently build pages like this?

A. I think the consistency remains to be seen. Although we’re thrilled with our new set of toys and doing a good job overall, we’re still working out quite a few bugs. Hopefully we can keep up the enthusiasm once the newness wears off.

Plus, the design looks great without a need for time-consuming creations in Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. We used to spend a lot of time on “fancy” stuff like that, and it never looked this good. It’s proof that simplicity is better.

This design is all about big, clean typography, tight crops, a minimal color palette (three colors) and an emphasis on punchy, relevant headline words.

Monday’s front.
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Q. Are you finding the new format a little more labor-intensive than what you had previously? If so, how are you dealing with that?

A. Yes, the new format is more labor-intensive, but in a good way.

Alan gave us many more section fronts to display content and quick-read material. Even the ad-heavy inside pages are more interesting and unique. It feels like our efforts really accomplish something useful for our community.

There are many things readers are noticing that that they never saw before — even though we’ve been doing them for years. That’s a great sign!

The rules are few, so it’s exciting to have freedom with a blank canvas. But the freedom obviously doesn’t mean designers can toss together cluttered pages without organization. We “keep to the code” when it comes to colors, typefaces, style sheets, etc., but we have an opportunity to sell stories in a more compelling way than we used to.

Even thinking about “selling stories” rather than simply writing headlines is a new concept. This requires a casual, every-day writing style with frequent use of “us” language. I know this goes against textbook journalism philosophy, but it’s obvious that it speaks to readers, and that’s what matters.

On the production end, our new press can handle more challenging color situations, which broadens the scope of what we can do. The biggest downside right now is the long hours and trying to get everyone up to speed. But we’ll get more efficient as we go.

I posed a similar question to our pal Alan Jacobson, the consultant who redesigned the Tribune Eagle:

Q. Did you format the thing specifically to be low-maintenance? is the lower story count the big time-saver here?

A. Yes and yes.

Tuesday’s front.
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Q. Alan, what the hell IS the secret to these pages? How CAN a small paper consistently do pages like this?

A. Here are some of the secrets:

1. Extremely simple typography - all heads in one very serviceable family (Griffith Gothic).

2. Extremely simple color palette - three colors (sky blue, brick read, sand brown).

3. Three talented designers: Kiah Staley, Derek Krewedl and Angela Brooks.

Derek Krewedl and Angela Brooks.
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4. One fired-up editor who isn’t afraid to try something different: Reed Eckhardt.

5. One fired-up general manager and publisher, neither of whom are are afraid of change.

6. One beautiful press: A brand-new MAN Roland.

7. Reducing the story count on the front page.

8. Forgetting rules about “entry points” and dominant images - neither are a requirement.

9. Creating the design on-site with Kiah, rather than doing it in my office alone. Kiah rocks.

Back to Kiah — who, we understand, rocks:

Q. How many designers or artists to you have in your newsroom?

A. I am the only graphic artist we have, but I don’t spend much time on illustrations, infographics or maps these days. I’m busy enough overseeing the overall presentation of things. I also design pages every day.

Our copy desk consists of six news copy editors and one sports copy editor. Most have less than 5 years of experience with a daily newspaper. Three of them are skilled in editing but not design. Three of us (myself included) are more skilled on the design side.

So the short answer is: We have three skilled designers and two “designers in training.” On thinly staffed nights, we put out a paper with only one (or none) of the designers in house. On those days
we place more emphasis on straightforward, organized page layouts and relevant headlines.

It may interest some people to know that we easily build all of our pages in Quark 4.1.

Alan adds:

Cheyenne builds all their pages in Quark XPress — no need for InDesign or the latest software — once again proving that the most important software is between your ears and in your heart.

Great point. But full disclosure: It should be noted Alan’s old BFD page was sponsored by Quark.

As you might have noticed last weekend, Alan thinks it’s important to measure redesigns on what they deliver in terms of pure numbers. So he’s very proud of his work in Cheyenne. He writes:

Single-copy sales were up every single day. Sales increased by an average of 15 percent per day, in spite of the fact that Cheyenne did not promote their redesign in any significant way - no radio, television or billboards.

This increase was measured against the previous week’s sales as well as the same week in 2007 - in both comparisons, single copy was up 15 percent

Some of this increase may be attributed to a promotion that the Cheyenne newspapers co-sponsored with a chain of convenience stories. However a similar promotion, which offered the statewide Casper Star Tribune in the same convenience stories, proved totally ineffective according to Loaf ‘n’ Jug’s marketing director. So we can conclude that the redesigned product - the Wyoming Tribune Eagle - made the cash register ring for Loaf ‘n’ Jug, rather than any other newspaper.

Loaf ‘n’ Jug! What a great name for a convenience store! I wonder how they prevent folks from loitering there. But I digress…

Alan says those numbers come from John Wiltse, the Tribune Eagle’s Distribution and Circulation manager.

In addition to a nice bump, reader reaction to the redesign — measured purely by what we can find posted at the paper’s web site — ain’t bad, either. A few examples (and please forgive the use of the dreaded anonymous comments):

‘Nice’:

The new design is great! It is much easier to read and the color is awesome. … Much better than the old design.

‘Openminded’:

I like it! … Trying something new is a good thing. I would appreciate that the front page story be something local.

Love the “to do” section — we don’t have to wait until Friday to see what is going on in town. “

‘Life Goes On’:

Great photos. Vibrant hues. Grab your attention headlines. Layout is great. Format is more complex and more interesting.

News could be a little more substantial. Seems like each story is addressed superficially.

‘Someone Who Knows Something’:

Yes, it does look somewhat like USA Today, but since USA Today is a leading newspaper — especially visually — I see no problem in emulating that.

I think it’s a great, fresh new look and makes it look like Wyoming is keeping up with the trends. I like the sections and how the newspaper is so much more visual.

I’m sure this will entice more people to read the paper. You should be very proud.

There are some naysayers, however:

‘Disappointed’:

I’m very disappointed in the new format and it appears to have been written for an elementary school student. Too much glitz and not enough news.

‘Honest Opinion’:

Graphically, the paper looks great. However, I’ve got to agree with many of my peers that the stories lack depth. I reach the end of the article and I’m flipping pages to see if there’s a continuation (there’s not.)

‘Wow’:

In your June 15 copy there are approx 115 words above the fold and about 75% ink coverage which is representative of the whole paper being all flash and very little substance.

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A sampling of section fronts from the first week:

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Back to Kiah:

Q. Alan passed along to me some circulation numbers. And I’ve read the comments posted on your web site. But what are you hearing in your newsroom? How has been the overall verdict from readers?

A. Overall, the reader comments I’m hearing are about 80-20 on the positive side. It’s been very encouraging. There are some complaints on the Web site (some of which have already been remedied), but nothing like what we had anticipated.

Most complaints seem to stem from resistance to change. They say things like, “There are too many sections,” but I think most people will like that once they get used to it. I have heard a few people say it seems too USA Today or full of “McNews,” but part of our goal was to make things more quick for busy readers, so I guess it’s good that they noticed.

We’re still doing investigative journalism and narratives, but many things that can be said in just a few paragraphs are reduced to just that. The brevity, overall, has been well-received.

As for the newsroom, it depends on which department you ask (smile). As we all know, newsroom cultures are resistant to change. I think most of my coworkers agree it’s a vast improvement though, and hearing it from readers makes it more convincing.

I’ve noticed the most staff resistance comes when decisions are made for mass readership rather than for the importance we place on ourselves and our hard work. Our new design places more emphasis on relevant stories than on “important” stories.

For example, a story about saving money at the grocery store now trumps the latest Iraq update. When the most relevant stories of the day come from the wire, reporters understandably feel a little left out. But this redesign requires us to change what we write and how we write it, and I think our reporters are doing a good job of putting more effort into stories with relevance.

And there seems to be some discrepancy concerning how to handle photos with “journalistic integrity.” This is a touchy subject because our designers view a photo as an integrated element to be woven into a design. We don’t condone tilting, “Photoshopping” or otherwise mangling photos … but we do sometimes crop, clip or place text on them to convey a cohesive message. Not surprisingly, photographers tend see photos as personal art or a sacred representation of reality that shouldn’t be fiddled with. I can definitely see both sides.

We’re in constant conversation about this and trying to find a middle ground, but I’d love to hear how other papers handle this.

Wednesday’s front.
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Q. Are you planning to bring back Arlo and Janis? Or are they toast for good?

A. Heh heh … Arlo and Janis never went anywhere. We had some technical issues with our features syndicate the first few days of the redesign. They have been resolved.

Tribune-Eagle readers
complained last week
that Arlo and Janis
had been dropped.
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Q. So it’s been a couple of weeks. What’s next for Tribune-Eagle visuals? Do you plan to change or upgrade anything else? Or will you be letting it ride for now?

A. What’s next? I plan to push to keep our visuals compelling and fresh, but more importantly, focused on readers and relevancy. Any changes made to the actual design will be minor, I’m sure. My boss (executive editor Reed Eckhardt) has told me many times that we believe in this design and we’re going to give it the ride it deserves.

We won’t always have a perfect execution and there will always be room for improvement (especially with a young and inexperienced staff). But I think we’ve got great papers ahead of us, thanks to Alan. And the day we start building pages just because they’re pretty in our portfolios is the day we should all quit.

We’ll be proud to add these handsome pages to our slide shows as examples of what small-paper design can be.

Wonderful job, Kiah, on all the work you and your staff put in on this redesign! And congratulations, Alan, on another successful project!

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