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
Comments
New Yet Traditional
Tue, 03/27/2012 - 09:34 — proctorKudos to The News & Observer for its new print design! It is both new and yet traditional in that one can see reflections of the classic '60s N&O look in the typeface. I consider this to be a real winner in terms of enhancing and reconfiguring the print edition of The News & Observer, which, yes folks, still has quite a loyal following out there.
Yes, in seeing this 21st Century "curtain call" for the N&O of the '50s and '60s, I can imagine that I am about to read a sports column by Dick Herbert or an editorial piece by Jonathan Daniels.
There is one trend among newspapers today that I do not understand: why do editors want to give away precious print edition space in order to run comments which have already appeared online? Isn't this backwards in terms of readership and marketing strategy? Shouldn't online editions "amplify" print editions of newspapers rather than the other way around?
I wish you would take a poll: how many people out there wish to see previously posted online blogs knock out news space in print editions the following morning?
Page 2 is practically a total loss now in terms of the overall content of the daily print edition. Page 2 used to be filled with lots of "neat stuff." Online comments, blogs and what have you are fine for people's computers, but give print edition readers some credit: at least some of us would rather read news and informed opinions and analysis rather than endure verbal hyperbole and irrational "spouting off" by folks who do not really seem all that interested in the search for truth and the facts of a situation. Their minds are already made up, so if they wish to enter their views in the newspaper marketpalce of ideas and opinions, they should do what generations of loyal and faithful newspaper readers have always done: write a "Letter to the Editor!"
David McKnight
hi dear
Tue, 03/27/2012 - 03:44 — jonsanmaliWhat you think new and better is just another series of decrease what readers actually enjoy about reading the newspaper. In importance order most readers read the first section to see what going on in the world, then the sports section and then the comics.<a rel="dofollow" rel="nofollow"<a href="http://www.printingthestuff.com">static cling</a>
Changes To News and Observer - Readers Input?????
Sat, 03/24/2012 - 08:39 — rwnproWhat you consider new and improved is just another series of shrinking what readers really enjoy about reading the newspaper. In importance order most readers read the first section to see what going on in the world, then the sports section and then the comics. To shrink the size of the comics page is NOT a good idea since this is an escape from the daily grind to get some humor in our over stressed lives. Instead of shrinking the comics page , why no shrink the liberally slanted editorial page. That would make more sense, because for every conservative view you always seem to post 2 to 3 liberal views. So if you print one for one views , it makes much more room to keep all of everyone's favorite comics...JMO....
The print edition ????
Fri, 03/23/2012 - 14:38 — AgentPierceJohn, do you still have a print edition? You're kidding, right? I thought that went broke several years ago.