THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 20, 1994 TAG: 9411190015
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LYNN FEIGENBAUM
LENGTH: Long : 105 lines
Readers still comment on the newspapers' ``new design.'' But the calls are relatively rare these days, and for a good reason. The design isn't so new anymore.
In fact, it's been a year since the highly touted redesign was launched, a period I remember well as hundreds of readers called to give us their input. Our phones (and ears) were ringing for weeks.
The redesign brought with it bigger and bolder headlines, more large-type pullouts and other visuals, more and brighter colors.
Page designers were told to ``think like a reader'' and to make stories more accessible and expressive. They were also told to make it clear, through a 6-column headline, what they consider the most important news story of the day.
Three days after Design D-Day (Nov. 15, 1993) we had logged 539 calls - 247 from readers giving it a thumbs up, 217 who liked the old way better.
In the year since then, ``we've learned a lot,'' said Nelson Brown, the deputy managing editor in charge of newspaper presentation. ``We've learned what not to do. And what to do.''
Have we learned? I put the question to about a dozen readers, all of whom had called a year ago to voice their opinion about the new look. Of the 12, eight had panned it, three loved it and one hedged her bets. Today, eight are design enthusiasts, two dislike it and two are in the middle.
``I like it now,'' said Fred B. Gallup, a yard conductor for Norfolk Southern who's particularly interested in business and community news. ``I guess with age it improves.''
That's pretty enthusiastic considering that, a year ago, Gallup's appraisal of the redesign was: ``I think it stinks.''
Patricia Garner, a Norfolk artist, hailed the redesign a year ago, though at the time she warned: ``Don't go too far; don't make it look like a tabloid.''
The newspaper hasn't gone too far, Garner said this week. ``As design, I really like it,'' she said. ``It's a very readable paper.''
Don Vtipil isn't happy with the errors he spots in the paper but he's pleased with the paper as a whole.
``It does what it's advertised to do,'' said the retired Navy captain turned grade-school teacher. ``It allows me to scan and pick what I want to devote my attention to.''
Christopher Shema, a Norfolk attorney, didn't like what he called the ``USA Today look'' a year ago and still doesn't like it today.
Same for June Warner, a retired Norfolk retailer. ``I don't think the paper looks good,'' she said bluntly.
Mercedes Gearhart found the paper too garish at first; she thinks it has toned down. ``The colors don't bother me now,'' said Gearhart, a Chesapeake tax preparer. ``It's not as bright as it used to be. . . It blends more.''
Stuart C. Stone of Norfolk agrees. ``You softened some of the changes,'' he said. ``. . . My impression now is that you've backed off a little, you're using smaller type and more information.''
Gearhart and Stone are right. ``Dialing back'' is what deputy managing editor Brown calls it.
``In the early days, we had a tendency to overreach, to try too hard. Sometimes we used the wrong typeface,'' he said, mentioning Franklin Gothic. That's the typeface that has the THICK BOLD CAPITAL LETTERS THAT SHOUT THE NEWS.
Brown says Franklin Gothic now is reserved for really important stories. He has also discouraged graphic devices that were ``just for decoration.''
Like a lot of readers, I wasn't completely sold on the new design a year ago. I like it better now - especially on days like Friday, when the front-page map and pullouts made it so much easier to follow Hurricane Gordon.
But I can do without a daily 6-column banner headline and presentations that are melodramatic or tabloid-y.
In general, though, unless something goes haywire, I'm no longer as conscious of the ``new design.'' That seems to be fairly typical, and it's fine with Brown.
``We want the design as an issue to fade away,'' he said, ``and spend more time on content, improving writing and being in touch with readers.''
HERE & THERE. With the election over, we're back to the lighter side of life. The past week's ``issues'' have been a welcome break from politics. Some of the hot buttons:
The errant Space Needle. We took some needling from well-traveled readers who saw a MetroNews photo Thursday and knew it wasn't, as the caption said, the Seattle Space Needle.
Theories on the tower's true identification were plentiful. Several callers thought it was in Vancouver, Toronto or Ottawa. San Antonio, Dallas and Houston were other guesses.
And Peter Leschen, who just moved here from Australia, where he's a Navy commander, swears it is Sydney's Centre Point Tower.
Only one caller guessed right - or what we think is right. The tower is in Geneva, Switzerland, about halfway around the world from Seattle.
The misunderstood vampire. Here's one to sink your teeth into. A half-dozen moviegoers told us that Tuesday's review of ``Interview with the Vampire'' had a wrong description of Louis, the plantation owner turned vampire.
In the movie, they said, Louis was mourning his wife's death; in the book, his brother. (Our review had it the other way around.)
Ah, well. To echo the last line of the review, it's just one of those fangs. . .
Double take. And finally, we've been asked all week why an opinion piece that ran in last Sunday's Commentary section (about the GOP sweep of Washington) ran again, the next day, on the editorial page.
The answer is pretty simple: It was a mistake. It was a mistake. MEMO: Call the public editor at 446-2475. Or send a computer message to
lynn(AT)infi.net. by CNB