A bold new presence online

nationalpost.com and financialpost.com have become a whole lot prettier and so much more easy to use!

In the words of the editor-in-chief, Douglas Kelly:

We are proud to introduce you to a rebooted nationalpost.com and financialpost.com, two Web sites completely redesigned and reimagined with clarity and ease-of-use in mind.

The Post has never been known to hold back when speaking its mind. We remain true to form today as we make available to our Web site everything we produce from commentary to breaking news to business, arts & life and sports coverage, to award-winning design and photography — absolutely free. No subscriber walls, no complicated registration process: it’s never been easier for you to find and enjoy everything the National Post and Financial Post have to offer.

You will find the National Post newspaper peppered with mentions of online items providing background, documents and related items to our stories that appear in print.

On the new nationalpost.com, you’ll discover a commitment to delivering a more immediate, in-depth and customizable news experience that works for you and your busy life. You’ll find us telling the stories that matter to you most in new and different ways. We're introducing NP Network Blogs, which include established interactive blogs and news feeds like FP Trading Desk, Full Comment and Posted.

We're also committed to offering National Post and Financial Post content everywhere. You can experience our news and blogs on your BlackBerry or Windows Mobile-powered PDA using our free reader from Viigo.

And you’ll also find us opening the floor to different sources and viewpoints, including your own, because we know that online, we’re just one voice in the world’s most vast and vibrant community. Enjoy the new nationalpost.com and financialpost.com and all they have to offer.

For some before-and-after looks at nationalpost.com, take a look at this entry on the NP Editors blog.

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.

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."

Toronto Star befores and afters

Our friend stateside at newsdesigner.com posted no fewer than 13 before-and-after page pairs of the redesigned Toronto Star. (Including couple of links back north to SND's Canada Blog for earlier coverage.) Not much new reported here, but newsdesigner provides a great platform to compare and contrast the new with the old.

The experts weigh in

d

UPDATED Although there have not been too many comments here about the new Toronto Star, the paper itself published a column Friday discussing the merits of its own redesign. Antonia Zerbisias, in her Star.com media column, asked three industry 'experts' what they thought of the redesign.

Lucie Lacava, a Montreal-based design consultant and former SND presedent who authored the previous Star design, said it was not a "dramatic" remake, more of a stripped-down version of what she designed. Lacava questions why The Star dumped its "distinctive blue nameplate," which has left the paper "less distinctive, more generic. Perhaps `generic' is too harsh. It's been simplified a lot."

Sunni Boot, president of ad buyer ZenithOptimedia: "I love it. I really, really like it. It's very well designed, very easy to navigate."

Tony Sutton, president of News Design Associates: the new Star is "very, very readable." He told Zerbisias "my problem with it is, as always, and as one of your readers pointed out (in a letter), it looks like it's got less news in it."

Here's the link to the Zerbisias column.

And perhaps the before and after comparison above might encourage some further responses (pdf's can be viewed below). starsample-before.pdf starsample-after.pdf

Toronto Star redesigns

The redesigned Toronto Star hit the streets today, with a cleaner look, larger body type and a pared-down selection of sections. Gone is the distinctive blue ribbon behind the flag (replaced by a smaller one just above) and soon to be gone is another inch in width as the paper gradually shrinks to 11.5 x 22 inches by October. The paper's local section has been rolled into the main A section and the various lifestyles sections (Food, Fashion) have been rolled into one section, titled "Living." Thestar.com also got a minor tweak and clean-up.

Body type is custom-designed Torstar Text, set at 10.25 points on 11 points of leading. Read more about the changes in their on-line readers guide.
Editor-in-chief J. Fred Kuntz promises:

• A renewed emphasis on local coverage. We are dedicating most of the A section to news from the Greater Toronto Area.
  A new World & Comment section.


• Simpler and clearer naming of sections. For example, it's Living six days a week, instead of I.D. or Food or Fashion or Health or Shopping. And it's Entertainment instead of Buzz or Movies or What's On.


• Don't get us wrong ‚Äì changing section names does not mean dropping content. We still continue to bring you topnotch coverage of food and fashion and health. It's all there in Living.


• And on Saturdays, the Weekend Living section will be wide-ranging, with more pages and all of the great content that was in the former Life and Shopping sections.

No response from readers yet posted on-line, but feel free to have at it here.

REDESIGN CHATTER

NewsDesigner's posting on The Globe and Mail's redesign is generating a lot of action in the comment department. Last we looked, there were 60 posts, including a few, er, colourful exchanges between Toronto type designer Nick Shinn and a couple of other commenters. As SND vice prez Gayle Grin says, it's an "incredible dialogue," so check it out if you missed it.
And there is the equally active (60 comments over two pages) thread over on Typophile