You will see an improved News & Observer with a new appearance starting Monday. Our print paper has had the same look for about 10 years. It needs to be updated to reflect some of the changes in how information is reported, distributed and received.
On the second page of the A and Sports sections, you will see daily features that reflect what people are saying online and in social media. The new Sports feature, “Sports Now,” will include an excerpt from one of our sports bloggers, as well as Twitter highlights from the North Carolina sports community. On 2A, “Talking Points” will report on the digital conversation, locally and nationally, and will show which stories are hot in the Triangle.
In the Weekend section on Fridays, you will find a new roundup of movie reviews. In Home & Garden on Saturdays, we will add new columns on decorating and gardening. To make room for some of these features, some of our comics will be eliminated.
The paper also will have a new look. The page will be slightly narrower (by less than a half-inch) but will be easier to read. On section fronts and many inside pages, we will run five wider columns instead of six narrow ones. The wider columns – about 2 inches wide – enable most readers to move through a story quicker. The size of the type in stories will not change.
Our 10 community papers will make similar appearance changes, effective with Wednesday's editions. Read more Saturday in my column at newsobserver.com. Let us know what you think about the changes.
--John Drescher
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