Changes coming to look of paper (3/2/05)

You should probably be at the meetings.

But it’s a little tough to figure out how to squeeze thousands and thousands of readers into our conference room.

Still, we have been talking about something which affects you. And it’s something where your opinion matters a great deal to all of us.

For the past several weeks, four members of our newsroom staff — Barb Wilkinson, Mike Snyder, Ray Cooney, and I — have been struggling with the process of re-designing the daily newspaper.

The CR’s basic design dates back to the 1980s, though it has been tweaked here and there over the years. Some aspects of the design actually date back further than that, so we’re approaching the job with a real sense of the traditions, reader habits, and standards of the past.

From the start, our primary goal has been to make the daily newspaper more readable, easier to navigate, more visually appealing, and more useful.

That’s meant starting with the basic building blocks: Type fonts for news stories, headlines, and photo captions.

Back about 1990, when we first joined the Macintosh revolution which was sweeping through small American newspapers, we discovered how dangerous these decisions can be. I’d picked a type font which we believed would look great on the page. It looked great on the computer screen and looked great when pages were proofed. But it looked terrible on the page.

Readers told us in no uncertain terms that they had trouble reading it, so after about a week of tough-to-read papers we found a font which held together better on newsprint.

In our discussions this year, we’ve also been reminded how complicated something as simple as a newspaper actually is when you start breaking it down into its separate parts.

In some ways, a newspaper is like an old roll-top desk with dozens of cubby holes and drawers. Each cubby hole has its function and readers know where to look for the information they want and need. Start moving things around sloppily and you can create headaches for both readers and editors.

Still, there are some changes ahead, though they’re still taking shape.

One change on the horizon targets the left-hand column on page one. We informally call it the “today” column, and it’s often a good place to give page-one prominence to small items that otherwise wouldn’t make it to the front page. Unfortunately, it’s also been a place where items can be overlooked. Look for that to get a makeover.

Another change ahead is an item we’re tentatively calling a “citizens’ calendar” which will list upcoming public meetings ahead for the next several days.

Readers tell us they often overlook meeting notices, and we figure it makes sense to run them more than once so public spirited folks can take part in local government.

Perhaps the biggest change we’re pondering is moving the sports pages to the back of the newspaper, moving the classified section and comics forward to make room.

By doing so, we’d be able to publish more full-color local sports photos, which readers tell us they’d enjoy.

Describing things now is a bit like describing a soup that’s still being prepared, so many things are still being considered, weighed, and kicked around.

And since the soup is several weeks from being finished, the final product is still something of an unknown.

That’s where you come in.

As long as we’re “tinkering in the kitchen,” we’d like to hear your thoughts, suggestions, and pet peeves. We’ve been collecting them for some time already, but you can never have too many ideas.

We won’t be able to use them all. But if we keep listening to readers as we work our way through this process, we’re bound to do a better job.

Comments and suggestions can be sent to The CR at P.O. Box 1049, Portland, Ind. 47371 or via e-mail at [email protected].[[In-content Ad]]