Notes on the new Grauniad
Caveats: I've always been a left-wing tree-hugging Guardian reader, even when buying the Independent instead. Overall, I'm very pleased with the new look. Most of what follows is nitpicking.
First impressions in the newsagent: it stands out, if only because of the new size. The use of colour works on the front page, in the sense that it pulls in the eye when scanning a row of folded newspapers on the shelf.
This newsagent doesn't have any problem displaying the new paper; all the papers are piled up on a shelf at floor level. I wonder how many newsagents will have any sort of problem with display? How will the big chains, like supermarkets and WH Smiths, display it?
As I pick up the paper, it feels nice and thick, a good weight. As though it will offer plenty to read. (Pick up a redtop tabloid at the same time and feel the difference.)
Today's front page: not as exciting as I'd hoped, perhaps because of a relatively slow news day.
I'm very pleased to see that the front page retains a mixture of news stories, rather than the single theme-story format the tabloid Independent keeps using, much to my annoyance. But notice, none of the front page stories are complete. To finish reading any of them, even the lead story, you're forced to turn to another page. Some of these pages are a long way inside - page 13, 15, 17, 26. The invitation to turn to page 2 at the bottom of Alan Rusbridger's welcome column is styled differently to the others. Is this an error, or an attempt to explain things as they go along?
I'm not keen on the choice of front page photo, and the decision to run it vertically down the centre of the front page. I think there were stronger images to be used (violence in Northern Ireland? imminent petrol supply chaos?).
Page 2: The "Today on the web" column is a nice touch, although it and the rest of the page seem very similar to London's Metro. Designed for Tube and bus commuters.
Internal news pages: There's no escaping this when you have smaller pages; the stories are generally shorter. This is a pity, but you can't have the smaller paper without cutting the word counts.
While photos have been used large and to maximum, "look at us, we're colour on every page" effect, other graphic elements like some maps (page 3, page 17) and charts (page 19) look squeezed and a little overwhelmed.
Adverts: It's worth remembering that a newspaper's articles have to fit around the adverts, not the other way round. Ad space is sold in advance, the news just gets to fill whatever space is left.
Mostly it works OK but I've noticed that intelligent tabloids (like The Times, the Indy and now the new Graun) end up with three-quarter page ads (see pages 8, 12 and 14 for examples) that force the news content to squidge up around the edges. I find this distracting and not so easy to read. The ad is very intrusive. If I were in charge, I'd give advertisers better rates on full-page or half-page ads, to discourage them from buying these annoying three-quarter page ones.
Fonts: I'm not as much of a font geek as some of my friends, so I won't go into any discussion of the merits of the new Guardian Egyptian font. I find all the text very readable and the headlines look nice to me. I might have preferred them to use "The Guardian" in the masthead, instead of "theguardian".
Media Guardian: Good stuff. Plenty to read, Kim Fletcher's opening column full of tidbits about forthcoming redesigns from almost every other paper on Fleet Street. If the Thursday technology pullout is as meaty as this, I shall be very surprised. But what's this "noticeboard" on the back page? A mishmash of ads, puffs and, err, a sort of adpuff thing for Guardian-sponsored seminar. This feature needs rethinking, it just looks like a desperate "What shall we put here?" space filler.
G2: Ohh, look, the marvellous Shortcuts page has been retained, now in pride of place at the front of G2. I'm very happy, I love the Shortcuts style and approach. Tim Dowling, on the new Berliner format:
As the nights draw in and conversation invariably turns to the average summer rainfall in Pembrokeshire, people are prone to the sort of wild exaggeration that unfairly portrays the country as a less-than-ideal holiday destination. In fact, the correct figure is 235mm. Illustrating this point was once a matter of holding your hands anywhere from six inches to two feet apart ... but now you may use the short side of your demi-Berliner G2 as a template, because it's exactly 235mm.
On page 4, "Theg2graphic", today on the arms trade. Is it me, or is this a series of ordinary graphs sitting on tank-shaped coloured blobs? I'm not very impressed. I thought the point of an infographic was to use the graphic elements to convey information in a way that a normal chart cannot. Still, the idea is nice and there's lots of scope for interesting future spreads.
The TV and radio listings are nicely presented, although shifted inwards from the back page. They do need a double spread for visual clarity and the new layout, with colour text for highlighted programmes, works well.
Notice there's no "Pick of the day" column on the TV listings page. Extending the listings to cover nine digital channels means there's no longer enough space.
Conclusions: I've spent all morning reading this paper, and I've enjoyed it. The new size does help, it will certainly help if you're reading it on the move. I like visual design and use of colour, and in the main my complaints are restricted to minor things. There's a lot of scope for tweaking and refinement of this design in coming months and years.
I'm looking forward to the Saturday paper next weekend, which I usually buy at the weekend instead of a Sunday paper. The only thing that might change that is a radically improved Independent on Sunday, which is relaunching as a tabloid soon.
