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?