Current mood:

amused

The Reinvention of the Baltimore Sun
Or how the Sun sucks more than it ever has. The Sun used to be a fairly decent paper when I first moved here in 2000. It has gotten worse and worse in the past 8 years. This isn't the first redesign The Sun has gone through since I've been here and each one has made it progressively worse. I was amused reading this letter from the editor last weekend with the introduction of their newest redesign. The text in italics is what the editor had to say and the text in regular type is my interpretation.

10 things to look for in your new paper
It’s a reinvention. We’re redesigning the newspaper from top to bottom, with a clean, four column
layout that provides the look and feel of a newsmagazine.

Because we can no longer call ourselves a real newspaper with real news, we're making sure we don't look like one anymore either.


Consistency
We’ll publish all regular sections in a broadsheet format, including Sports and the Harford, Howard and Anne Arundel zoned editions.

Our previous attempt to redesign the paper didn't work so we're going back to all broadsheets because it's easier to print that way.


New coverage
We’ll increase our coverage of public safety with a new crime blog and column. We’ll offer new columns that explore finding inexpensive restaurants and eating locally grown foods, and we’ll
expand blogs on parenting, books and other topics.


It seems people actually read our blogs so now we'll print them in the paper too in lieu of real reporting. Plus we don't have to pay anyone for the information we find out in the comments of the blogs.


Our new nameplate adds “Baltimore” to recognize an increased commitment to local news, while an updated vignette recognizes The Baltimore Sun’s 171-year legacy.

We realize that our current paper has gotten so bad we're changing the name because it's no longer appropriate to compare the once great Sun to the current Baltimore Sun.


More readable body type
We’re keeping the same font size in our article text, while making it easier to read by increasing
line-spacing more than 10%.

We're trying to use as much page space as possible so it actually looks like our paper is full of content even though it really isn't.


Welcome to the reinvention of The Baltimore Sun. Not The Sun. The Baltimore Sun.
Changing our name after 171 years is no small matter. We did it because this is no small change
to your newspaper, a Baltimore-based news organization that is the definitive source of news and
information for this city and region.

Again we're too ashamed to completely associate the current to paper to it's predecessor.

This is a whole new Baltimore Sun. As you can see, it’s a more visual newspaper for a more visual age. It’s bolder, with more color, more photos and more of our personalities displayed prominently. The design is less cluttered. The content is better organized on clearly labeled pages. All of this was done to make the paper even more accessible and to improve your reading experience.

We're trying to distract you from the fact that there is no longer any news in our "newspaper" with lots of pictures and color. People are easily distracted these days right? Oh and did we mention that there's more photos because we fired all our photographers and are now having our reporters take pictures of their stories with their camera phones.

But the changes are not merely cosmetic. Over the course of this week, we’ll
be introducing some 40 new features to the paper to make it more relevant and useful in your daily lives. The daily paper will consist of three sections — news, sports and features.

Because we no longer have enough staff to write stories for all the sections we used to have like Business and an actual section devoted to Maryland.

We’ve renamed our features section “You,” and we’ll be theming it daily with topics you’ve told us you care about — entertainment, health and fitness, technology,home and garden and others.

We're trying to make you feel special with this new title to again distract you from the fact that our paper no longer contains any actual news and is turning into a print version of Perez Hilton.

We’ve assembled all of our news — state, local, business, and nation and world — into an expanded front section. We’ve converted our daily Sports section from a tabloid to full-sized pages, and we’ve enlivened it with new features. We’ve created a new Sunday section called “Maryland Closeup,” which will explore unique trends, issues and personalities that are having an impact in our state.

Because we no longer have any reporters to cover Maryland on a daily basis we're going to shove all the news into one section on Sunday and try to convince you we're still reporting because that one day a week we actually do report on the news...that is if you can find it among all the new color photos and ads we've added to the paper.

While much about The Baltimore Sun has changed, one thing hasn’t. Maryland’s largest news-gathering team is still passionately committed to a standard of journalistic excellence that has earned the newspaper 15 Pulitzer Prizes and dozens of other national and regional awards in recent years. We strive to provide you with award-winning coverage you can’t find anywhere else.
TIM FRANKLIN EDITOR

The 3 reporters we still have left on staff are committed to journalistic excellence but there's no way only 3 people can put out a decent paper, so this what you're left with. Enjoy!