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After just a year on the job, it's hard to say that Washington Post Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli hasn't made his presence known.
During his tenure, Washington's paper of record has seen a number of changes, both in structure and style. Once separate empires, print and online, are set to merge completely by 2010. The stand-alone Book World is gone and the Business section has merged into the front pages. The Sunday magazine has a new look, as does a new online local home page on the web site.
On Sunday, the Post underwent its most visible Brauchli-led transformation yet, as the print edition rolled out a complete redesign. The paper's font changed, headlines adopted a down-style (only the first letter is capitalized), subtitles were added to stories and the editorial and op-ed pages took on a new look, with editorials taking up more of the page, and letters less.
In an online chat on Monday, Brauchli fielded questions about the redesign. Basically, he said, people have less time to read the paper, so everything has to be easier to find: "... we took steps to improve the navigation, adding marquees at the tops of section fronts directing readers to material inside," he said.
Distinctive? When I first picked up a paper on Monday, for a second I thought I had picked up a copy of The Wall Street Journal by mistake. Or at least, the old Journal. From the tiered headlines to the fonts to the images of certain columnists – they're black and white shots that appear to emulate the Journal's famous stipple portraits – Brauchli clearly brought a design aesthetic over from his former employer. Of course, the current Journal has actually been phasing out its tiered headlines for some time now.
Don't miss out on the hyperventilating readers featured in that online chat with Brauchli, by the way. If there's one thing the Post has learned this year, it's that Post readers love nothing more than to complain about any and all changes.
Fairfax, Va.: Why can't you people leave well enough alone? There is a comfort in the familiar, and you keep moving things around and changing them. For crying out loud, stop it!Any DCist commenters want to weigh in a less hysterical manner? Or do any of you still read words printed on paper anymore?
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I prefer my comments to be more, not less, hysterical, thank you very much. Especially when we're talking about guns, voting rights, junk-punching, or MOLLY!
If the Washington Post told me the sun would come out tomorrow, I'd bet against it and go watch a production of "Annie" instead.
I heard the same batch of redesign complaints when the local Safeway "updated" their interiors to compete with SFW and Teeter. The geriatrics came out in droves, whining about how they'd been going to the same aisles to get their can of catfood and Campbell's Cream of Failure Soup for One and single stick of butter and, gol durn it, they couldn't find a damned thing anymore. Now, dag nab it, I wash born here, an I wash raished here, and dad gum it, I am gonna die here, an no sidewindin' bushwackin', hornswagglin' cracker croaker is gonna rouin me bishen cutter! At that point, the Ben Gay fumes kinda overpowered me and I woke up in a basement with a saw. Suffice to say, my pet parrot refuses to defecate on the Washington Post. Now, where can I get a decent roast pork/Brauchli rabe/sharp provolone sub in this jerkwater burg?
Woke up in a basement with a saw = comment o' the day.
In true WaPo style, Monkey buried the lede in his last missive: "...my pet parrot refuses to defecate on the Washington Post."
Exactly; WaPo hasn't been relevant--or fit to poop on--since 2006.
jerkwater burg
Best Nickname for DC Metro Area nominee
Call me old-fashioned, but I am not a fan of the redesign. But I am sure I will get used to it, just like I got used to the color pictures in the paper too...
What is the name of yo' pet parakeet?
The parrot's name is "Nickles." He's small, he's angry, and he's full of $h!t.
I used to be small, angry, and full of $h!t until I learned how to dump on the Post. Now I am small, mellow, and only occasionally annoying. True story!
I'll still wipe myself with a copy of The Final Call in a pinch. (Ha!)
Yet the website, the most atrociously designed news site I've ever laid eyes on, remains unchanged...
Agreed, in large part. It's completely spastic. Where the hell are the headlines? Buried in the middle of the page about 1/4 the way down? Because THAT makes sense.
Certainly form should follow content. Now their design is as useless as their coverage.
When I lived in DC, I always joked that they should call themselves "The Herndon Post" because their Metro Section was so pathetic: a couple of shootings downtown, a life-affirming puff piece about triumph in the face of adversity, followed by 16 pages of real estate ads. Now, I don't live in DC and the Post's suburban coverage is slightly less useful than consulting an astrologer. This is why newspapers die: they try to compete with the New York Times or the Manchester Guardian or television, instead of telling local news that affect local readership. I don't give a fat rat's fart about what happened on the other side of the planet last night or why Richard Cohen thinks Israel can do no wrong. I want to find out why the f**king helicopters were circling my house last night and what's the quickest escape route.
Today's Metro story on Chief Zee is a must read...the natives are now getting restless even against the "ascot"
i prefer to get my print journalism from the dupont current, hill rag, dc north, and intowner, thank you very much...
There is a "print" version of the website already available
http://www.washingtonpost.com/print
But why would I want to read "aged news"?
Washington Post is taking their cue from Coca Cola. You bring "New News" to market, wait for the inevitable negative reaction, then bring out "Classic News" and charge more. Eventually, you phase out "New News," everybody forgets about the fiasco, and you can go back to peddling sugar water that rots your readers teeth. You then put all your money into diabetes treatment.
wtf is paper?
The new Washington Post print edition is a Serif and Sans-serif font collision from hell. It's the Rachel Ashwell's Shabby Chic of graphical layout -- trying to be modern and precious at the same time, and simply being irritating and ugly.
Frankly, I like it. It's old school! It's the first paper that's not trying to look like USA Today or the internets or the televideo machine and says, dammit, let's look like a newspaper! A newspaper from 1962! Next, let's get rid of the color photos and start referring to base-ball and the War Department.
Also, I love the picture of Phil Silvers they keep running on the front of the Metro section.
Who wants yesterday's papers
Who wants yesterday's girl
Who wants yesterday's papers
Nobody in the world
Yesterday I could have sworn the online version was now the "Siemens Post", did anyone else get the impossible to remove margin frame?