'Seattle Times' Unveils Redesign Next Week

By: Mark Fitzgerald The Seattle Times launches a redesign next week that it says will allow readers better navigation of the Puget Sound's biggest-circulation newspaper.

"We're giving readers a lot more tools so they can better navigate the paper," said spokesperson Kerry Coughlin. Headlines will use a bolder typeface, and jumps will be continued inside below bigger keywords to catch the eye. To give readers a better idea of what's in the story, headlines will be layered and background boxes will be placed in articles. Story fonts have also been "freshened" to be more readable, the paper said.

These design changes -- to be unveiled Monday, June 7, in the daily paper and June 13 for Sunday editions -- are the first significant redesign work at the Times (Click for QuikCap) since June 7, 1993, the newspaper said. The redesign will be promoted with house ads, online banners and point-of-purchase signage using the theme: "Now, a better way to look at the news."

The redesign was created entirely in-house, Coughlin said, and did not consider a radical format change, such as going tabloid. Similarly, the paper's sectioning will stay the same, she said: "We think that's working for us, and working well."

But section fronts and the front page will be noticeably different, the newspaper says. The "Morning Newsline," a front-page summary the Times says is popular with readers, will be moved from below the fold to run the length of the left side of the page. A "Sports Ticker" of scores and other information will run just below an updated nameplate. The front page will feature an index and more opportunities for story teasers, Coughlin said.

To give a more Pacific Northwestern-y sort of feel, the in-house designers "reviewed hundreds of photographs that have previously appeared in the newspaper to develop a palette for color use that better reflects the Northwest environment," the newspaper said.

The 237,303-circulation Seattle Times is 50.5% owned and controlled by the Blethen family's Seattle Times Co., with the remainder owned by Knight Ridder of San Jose, Calif. The paper is in litigation with the Hearst Co.'s 150,901-circulation Seattle Post-Intelligencer, seeking to end their joint operating agreement.