Blog
October 12th 2010
You can dress ‘em up, but who cares?
The Globe and Mail has lost some weight and has a much younger look. In fact, it looks like the new Globe is the younger, slimmer, hipper, but still moneyed cousin of the old design.
So, will that make you more likely to pick it up or subscribe?
As Matt Preprost reported in his Sept. 23 blog post, Maclean’s attributes its two per cent increase in circulation this year to its new design. Maclean’s redesign happened back in May and included more stories and words per issue and a permanent book review section (be still my beating heart!).
Nick Shin notes on typophile.com, “Redesigns … spike readership and generate buzz with advertisers, as well as addressing many content-driven issues.”
This is why redesigns would seem to be integral beyond giving a publication a fresh look: content and form are interdependent.
Sure, the Globe looks snazzy, but is it actually easier to read? Are we getting better journalism?
From reading the paper nearly every day since the overhaul and doing research online, I’ve discovered that not much has changed content-wise other than some shuffling around and section renaming.
I’m inclined to say that though my newspaper reading experience has improved (brighter colours, glossy stock, a better size!) the journalism and content remains the same.
Blogger Derek Flack puts it more succinctly on BlogTO: “Is the paper more visually appealing than it was before? Absolutely. Will this lead me to renew my subscription? Nope.”
The word I hear most frequently to describe the Globe’s new look is “magazine-y.” What’s interesting to note is that these publications seem to be stepping down from their content to a lower rung on the design ladder to appeal to a broader audience: the Globe and Mail looks more like a magazine; Maclean’s looks more like a tabloid.
Whether these tactics will work for the long term remains to be seen.
Ultimately, the reason circulation is down and print is repeatedly placed on its deathbed doesn’t seem to be a design issue. Thus, it stands to reason that making a newspaper look more like a magazine is the equivalent of jumping from a sinking ship into a slower sinking lifeboat.
Now, someone just needs to clue the Free Press in to the redesign trend; it could at least sink in style.
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