Even semi-comatose readers will notice that The Courant returned today to a more conventional, traditional and horizontal banner style, a combination of several designs offerred to readers earlier this month.
The red heart in the crown was apparently popular, and I’m sure many readers said they preferred the new combination of a bold serif face paired with condensed sans serif one, both in white on blue — with the white horizontal stripes.
Missing is the “Nation’s Oldest Continuously Published Newspaper” line, which probably ought to be included in the masthead on page A4.
What’s more important here, perhaps, is that the new management is making an effort to listen to readers – and make a public show of it. The paper’s readers are, as we know, a conservative (and aging) lot. This ought to be a guiding principle going forward, even if it has not been in the past. (I’m not even mentioning the years of market research that indicated, with no room for doubt, that Courant readers want local news, local news, local news and maybe, after that, more local news.)
Internally, the retreat to a more conservative banner signals a move in the direction of collaborative management and normalcy, I think, or at least a calming of the panic and desperation that motivated a hasty, under-resourced, gun-to-the-head redesign.
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This isn’t really an opinion as such; it’s more of a question. It seems to be an article of faith at many papers, including the Courant, that time-starved readers are craving expanded index boxes, like the one taking up a fourth of the Courant’s redesigned front page. But do they really? I’ve always wondered about that.
It looks good — very clean, bright, smart and organized. Let’s hope the improved design is followed by improved coverage of the news — local, state and national.
They should make the Web site look more like the Courant’s new front page — and restore the link to view “today’s front page.”
Also missing is the period after the word “Courant,” which has been a feature of the flag for several years.
Regarding Tuesday’s A1, am I the only person who finds text that wraps on the left-hand side really hard to read?