The National Post and Vertical Integration!

The National Post launched its new design on September 27th.
Have a peek at the Post's new look!






Editor-in-chief Douglas Kelly writes:

... we have developed a look that respects the underpinnings of the Post's design -- a unique combination of traditional and modern typography and layout -- while pushing new boundaries and giving the Post a unique, instantly recognizable look. The design changes do not stop with the front-page banners. We have also increased the size of the typeface and bumped up the space between the lines to improve readability. We have standardized the number of typefaces and moved to a cleaner font for charts, graphics and sidebars. And we have introduced recurring design elements that will break out the background to a story, provide the investment angle and detail what's coming next. Great design goes hand in hand with great content, and we have made many improvements on the latter front as well.

Here are side-by-side comparisons of the new and old section fronts.







Here's the National Post's blog entry on the relaunch. Check out Charles Apple's blog post on visualeditors.com/apple.

Norris named Globe's design leader

Adrian Norris has been named of Managing Editor, Design, for The Globe and Mail.

Adrian joined the Globe in 2000 as a designer in Report on Business and followed that with three years as Presentation and Production Editor in News. In 2005, he took charge of a project to redesign the Globe's websites, a task completed early in 2006.

With that new expertise under his belt, he graduated to the newly created position of Creative Director, Digital Media, and led a Globe Reimagination project team that implemented web-paper integration. He also led a second redesign of the websites that began with the launch of reportonbusiness.com and has spread to other parts of the globeandmail.com network.

Before coming to The Globe, Adrian worked for 11 years in London as a designer at The Times and its associated publications.

"In his new role, Adrian will be accountable for the look of the newspaper, the websites and our magazine products, ensuring consistent application of design principles across all platforms," Globe editor-in-chief Edward Greenspan said. "He will be working to make sure we get the most out of the redesign and continue to situate ourselves on the leading edge of newspaper, magazine and web design."

David Pratt, who has served as The Globe's editorial art director for nine years, will be stepping back from his management role to become more involved in day-to-day design matters. "Through his vision and determination, he has created a design culture in a newspaper once famous as the grey Globe," editor-in-chief Edward Greenspan said. "Nobody would call The Globe grey today."

In honour of David's contribution to the evolution of the modern Globe, its still-unchristened editorial award for visual excellence has been named the David Pratt Award. The first recipient of the award is Cinders McLeod, designer for the Globe's new Life section. She received the award during a newsroom ceremony on Tuesday.

The Canada Blog tossed a few questions to Adrian on his big day.

How has SND helped your career?

So far, it's helped in three ways. 1. Staff recruitment: I've employed one new member of staff this year as a result of posting jobs on the SND website. 2. Making contacts at other news organizations, which I've since visited. 3. Having an open forum for debate; last year's workshop particularly helped me on the topics of print-web integration and work processes related to graphics for the web.

Where does your design inspiration usually come from?

It comes from looking at what I consider industry leaders, but most importantly from the highly talented team I have around me.

Who were your mentors?

My first, most influential mentor was David Driver, Head of Design at The Times, London. I learned from watching him at work. His deputy, Ian Stupples, displayed great patience in teaching me in my first real job after college.

What are the biggest challenges visual journalism faces?

Pulling down walls. Looking for intelligent ways to share top-quality content between different platforms.

The state of online journalism

The growing strength of visual online journalism will be on display at the Online News Association's annual conference in Toronto, Oct. 17-19. It comes a week after our own SND workshop in Boston, which also has a lot of strong content on the subject.

The ONA gathering will feature heavy-hitting speakers Hilary Schneider of Yahoo! and Michael Oreskes of the International Herald Tribune, an 'all-star superpanel' on the future of journalism, and workshops such as So You Want to Shoot Video? and Running a Digi-Newsroom on the Cheap.

Winners of the Online Journalism Awards will be announced at ONA's banquet at the Sheraton Centre. There are three Canadian finalists: The Globe and Mail in the General Excellence (Medium) category, cba.ca for news consumer reporting in the Service Journalism (Large) category, and the Toronto Star's Lost in Migration project for the Knight Foundation Award For Public Service.

Canadian content in SND election

Canada's own Gayle Grin leads the slate of officers running for the SND's top office. Online ballots were e-mailed out to members last week, though there are two other options for voting: mailing a paper ballot postmarked no later than Mon., Sept. 24, to SND HQ, and casting a paper ballot at the Boston workshop's registration desk no later than 10 a.m. Fri., Oct. 12.

Gayle would be the third Canadian after the late Rob Austin, former Hamilton Spectator editor (1983-84) and design consultant Lucie Lacava (2001) to lead SND.

Gayle is Managing Editor of Design and Graphics at the National Post and the design consultant for the CanWest newspapers. She's been involved in SND in virtually every possible way since becoming Region 10 director in 1997.

The Canada Blog asked Gayle for her "'vision thing" on where SND is headed:

"We are moving quickly to adapt to rapid change and SND's website is again vital and our blog lively. I think the Society has plenty of spark and vitality to offer members.

"However, new challenges are everywhere. Newsrooms are in transition and many are, by necessity, in the process of reinventing themselves. SND, as a worldwide organization, has the potential to be inspirational, a resource and support for media organizations reshaping themselves to remain relevant.

"We need to accommodate the huge growth in online journalism and design. Journalism is integrating print and online and SND needs to shift gears on what we offer members. I think we need to create more visible web awards as well as offer more web and multimedia training."

UPDATE The Canada Blog asked Lucie Lacava what it was like being SND president?

"The year I was president was 2001, the year that changed the world. Preparing for the annual Workshop which was being held in Phoenix, Arizona, just weeks post 9/11, was rather unsettling. The annual event itself was fairly understated, akin to hosting one giant wake. We were celebrating our accomplishments, while contemplating an uncertain future. But what permeated the air most of all was this feeling of loss for our American cousins and for the rest of the world."

A new Metro

Metro Toronto trumpeted its new look on Tuesday.

"We're proud to bring you a cleaner, brighter, more contemporary Metro, while still giving you the same quick, easy-to-read newspaper you've come to love,'' an editors' note on Page 3 read.

"The front page has an updated look, providing a window to the rest of the newspaper. There's a large photo of the day and lots of information on what's inside your favourite free daily read. Once you get inside, you will find lots of info bites on every page and a fabulous new design of two of your favourite Metro staples: the Celebrity Buzz page and the horoscope feature. We've also updated our headline fonts and introduced new, vibrant colours, but have kept colour coding for all of your daily and weekly sections."

Complete PDFs of Metro for all its Canadian markets - Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver - are available here by clicking on 'Read Metro' on the left rail

Juan Antonio Giner, over on his Innovations in Newspapers blog, was quick off the mark yesterday and pulled no punches in critiquing the new look: "Could you tell me which one is new? Both look terrible."