MSN Today
The State Journal decided to redo the design and layout of its sections this week. I’m not much of a fan. I didn’t see anything wrong with the old ones, but they were apparently too old looking or something. Section A seems to be untouched. Other than a small box above the nameplate pointing out something changed, I don’t see an article explaining the changes or why they happened. In any case, the shot below shows the new design.
As you can see, the section headings received a colored band with a tiny white fringe at the bottom (seemingly a printing mistake?) . It’s eminiscent of USA Today more than anything, although USA Today is more creative with colors. The WSJ has three sections in varying shades of green, while two other sections are shades of blue. Apparently there’s a deal on blue ink this week? A glance at Saturday’s paper shows that a red and orange section made it into the mix.
One odd thing is that any sections that were likely printed in advance (A&E, Adventure, Lifestyle) have serif fonts for the section titles, while anything printed last night (section A, Local, Forum) has a sans-serif font. What the heck? Are they trying to be inconsistent? Next thing you know I’ll have customer service telling me a new feature of the paper is the ability to customize the fonts to my liking.
In addition to getting a color makeover, the first pages of the fluff sections seem to focus on one major story above the fold – some sections not even indicating the presence of another story on the top half (see the purple A&E section in the pic). Only the more real news focused sections don’t have a massive image above the fold. It also seems like the primary story for each section gets a different, sans-serif, font from the headlines of the other stories (which are in a serif font) as a kicker of sorts.
I’m not a big fan of the changes nor the inconsistency, but maybe that will change.