DATE: Tuesday, September 16, 1997           TAG: 9709160279

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: NEW YORK                          LENGTH:   30 lines

NEW YORK TIMES INTRODUCES COLOR PHOTOGRAPHS, MORE SECTIONS

The buttoned-down New York Times loosened its tie Monday, running color photos on some of its section fronts.

The Times has used color in its Sunday feature sections since 1993. This is the first time it has done so on the front of any of its weekday sections.

While the front page remained black and white, bold blues and greens enlivened the sports section with a picture from Sunday's New York Giants-Baltimore Ravens football game. Opera diva Maria Callas was pictured in scarlet on the front of a new arts section two decades after her death.

The Times said it will put color photos on the front page next month after the production staff gets used to the process and the editors have a strong picture to run.

``Our view is that color is just another tool, another way to present information,'' said Joseph Lelyveld, executive editor. ``We've always said the same news values and judgments and considerations of taste that always applied to the front page will continue to apply to the front page.''

Other changes include more sections in the weekday paper and later deadlines. Readers in the metropolitan area now will get five sections in Monday editions and six sections Tuesday through Friday.

The changes were made possible by a new $350 million printing plant in Queens.

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