By: E&P Staff The Pioneer Press in St. Paul, Minn., launched its new look Tuesday, with color-coded sections, short local stories clustered in one place, and a narrower page width.
As is increasingly the case when a newspaper introduces a redesign, Pioneer Press Editor Thom Fladung felt the need to reassure readers that they are not getting less news in smaller type.
"The size and typeface of the text did not change," Fladung wrote. "The amount of space for stories, photos and other art is not changing. The pages got narrower, but by redesigning the page headings and making other adjustments, we were able to retain virtually all the news space we had in the wider version."
Regular features, he added, were not moved within the paper, and the weekly TV book and daily TV grid have the same number of channels and format as before, he said.
Fladung told E&P the paper is getting the mixed reaction from readers typical of any redesign. "But among the people who have called or e-mailed to say they do (like it), the most commonly mentioned changes have included putting all the local news briefs -- and only journalists call them 'briefs,' readers call them 'stories' -- together on Page 2B," he added. "They used to be scattered around the B (local news) section."
His favorite comment from a reader, Fladung said: "Size is unimportant. The only thing that is important is content."
Complete conversion of the presses to the new 46-inch web width should be completed by Wednesday, Fladung added.
An image of the new front page can be seen
here.
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