This paper is a quality tabloid but has always had poor design.
Now the Rocky Mountain News (Denver, Colorado, USA) has redesigned.
The first spruced-up edition was on doorsteps today.
There is a new flag on the front page.
Another change is a single-focus picture and headline on the front page.
“What you’re going to see is a newspaper that’s much more like a daily magazine,” said John Temple, editor of the Rocky Mountain News.
“It’s going to read like a magazine; it’s going to be really oriented to being really easy to flip through,” he said.
The redesign will also get rid of jumps in the newspaper; instead the paper will be laid so you just turn from page to page to read each story.
The paper will also have higher quality printing, which will make the pages look crisper. And they will actually be cleaner, meaning you won’t end up with ink all over your hands.
Oh boy, great news!
An US paper with no jumps, a daily magazine, tabloid format, dramatic front page, quality printing and better newsprint…
Give them a Pulitzer Prize right now!
See the new and old flags here.
RELATED LINK: A slide show and video about the Rocky Mountain News’ new presses here.
I really think that the future of newspapers (here in Spain, from where I wrote; there in the United States; all over the world of print) is to evolve in daily newsmagazines. Small, smart, coloured, well-dressed… The news Rock Mountain News has big “magazine” goals but, as far as I can see in the spreads publised in the web… Perhaps is a pretty good paper, but is a really poor grey magazine.