By: Mark Fitzgerald For all the "interesting" navigation tools the Chicago Tribune has incorporated in its new design, the fact to keep remembering is that this makeover is intended not to be, primarily anyway, a newly reader-friendly paper -- but one that can be put out cheaper with fewer hands and less editorial content.
When you look at it like that, the sectioning at least makes sense. Why, otherwise, would the "Chicagoland" metro news section begin at the back of the A section, and resume in a second section? Why, too, would a columnist who once had prime real estate -- such as local news columnist Dawn Trice Turner -- be shunted way inside, and not even have a place on the "Chicagoland" front page?
A flurry of memos from Tribune Innovation Chief Lee Abrams earlier this summer seemed to suggest the redesigned Tribune would emphasize its deep bench of talent and personalities. Well, it looks like all the featured columnists and writers got a new picture -- but their places in the paper are less prominent than before.
One real improvement is in the sports section, where the previous Trib design had, it seemed to me, always hid its lamp under a basket. The paper is trumpeting a "more visual" sports section, and while the graphics are indeed bigger and bolder, the real improvement is in highlighting its writers better.
On the other hand, the change in the lifestyle/entertainment/comics section is no improvement at all. The name has been changed from "Tempo" to "Live!" with the kind of graphics and orange color scheme you expect from mid-sized paper like the Bergen (N.J.) Record rather than the home to Chicago's best architecture, theater, and classical music critics.
Check out the Trib's "guided tour" to the redesign
here.
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