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| It's called hibernation, people!"thesubway walls has no pulse"
Ouch. So, according to Xanga, I am dead, and hence, they felt they could change the furniture willy-nilly. This new interface is confusing me greatly. It takes me 5 minutes to figure out how to post and I'm not a fan of that.
A new blog was already in the works, but all these changes and then the less than enthusiastic welcome when I log on, has given me the gusto to make a decided departure from this corner of the blogosphere.
I'm packing up and heading over here.
Come and visit. I think you'll like the view.
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| Something's in the AirNamely, spring and, hence, change and new life.
I'm embarking on a new adventure soon. And working on a new blog, where I shall unveil the details of that adventure.
Hopefully both the blog and I are ready to go soon.
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| I thought I would break out of my blogging lethargy (or is it blogging acedia, Ms. Collins?), to post a bit about, well, the Post, prompted by the website re-design of CanWest's Mothership.
About two months ago, I became a subscriber to the National Post, not out of a strong inclination to get a big wad of newsprint on my doorstep every morning, but because a really cheery Newfie was selling subscriptions in the foyer to Save-On and she roped me in long enough to tell me that half of my subscription would go to a scholarship for poor kids--after that revelation, how could I say no?
So, I've been dutifully reading my right-wing news source for the last several weeks, and I must say that the paper has been a pleasant surprise in many ways. While the editorial line is fairly predictable and the news is the same banality I could get at any number of sources, what I've enjoyed most is the whimsy. Intelligent whimsy is hard to come by, but the Post does it well. Not everyday of course, but sometimes they really hit the nail on the head. This gem of a full-page spread adorns my fridge and causes me to smile at least once a week. That's bang for my buck.
And it's part of the reason why the Post is starting to come between me and my long-time companion, the Mop and Pail. Of course, my little opinion doesn't matter much in the world of corporate media, but I have my suspicion is that the National Post is becoming a bit more savvy in how it delivers the news, than its other national counterpart.
Let's compare re-designs. Both papers underwent a 2007 make-over. The Globe early in the spring and the Post in the fall (the first copy that landed on my doorstep, actually was the first day of the re-design, how fortuitous?).
-Both papers changed their mastheads, see Globe old and new here, and NatPost old and new here. Essentially, the Globe preserved the masthead's orientation, but changed the
font, while the Post rotated the masthead, but left the font the same.
My winner: the Post.
My reason: Font is brand, font is comfort. Logos can be placed anywhere. You would recognize the Coca-Cola logo if it was in purple and pink and mirror image, but what if the "C" lost its long meandering tale? You would still recognize it, but it would throw you off. Now imagine those two lovely, hyphenated words were in a non-cursive font. The image would lose it's impact entirely. By preserving its font the Post has brand continuity, with a little spice. The Globe on the other hand, still jars me eight months later.
-Both papers changed their page size. I can't tell you if they're exactly the same size, but I consider this a tie, since smaller is easier to handle in both cases. But read on to find out what each paper did with their smaller space.
-Both papers changed their typset. The Globe introduced a smaller font, set closer together, so that no content would be sacrificed with the smaller page size. In their words: "we didn't want to give up an inch of ground on the qualities
(strong reporting, great writing, seriousness of purpose)." Um, maybe a few editors and journalists should take themselves a bit less serious and realize that hardly anyone reads beyond the third sentence, let alone the thirty-third paragraph.
The Post, on the other hand, increased the font size and spaces between the lines of type, which makes a lot of sense to me, considering that most newspaper readers are 50 and beyond (again, the Torontoist has a good comparison here). You know what they say, the eyes are the first thing to go.
-And finally, both papers have updated their websites this year. G&M wins on being the best at garnering comments and reader interaction. But I must say the new Post site is pretty stellar layout. Of course, anything would look miles better than that hideous, and ultimately useless, layout with the fade-out yellow header. Lines are crisper, graphics actually exist (beyond headshots), and the article font reminds me of the NY Times site. All good moves if you ask me, now if only the rest of the CanWest family could get in on the website makeover. Alas.
So that's my very amateur breakdown of design--but what about the experts out there? What are your thoughts on Canada's national newspaper designs.
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