Noteworthy

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• The redesigned Wall Street Journal hit newsstands today. The new size is the first thing you notice — it’s gone from a generous 15 inches wide down to a diminutive 12. The other big design change is the typography, which is much improved thanks to a new typeface, Exchange, from the venerable Hoefler & Frere-Jones. Still, with its stipple hedcuts and “What’s News” section, it continues to look like the Journal. Comparing today’s edition to one from last week, the old design feels very tired.

  The paper’s strategic direction has changed as well. Publisher L. Gordon Crovitz calls it “Journal 3.0,” and says:

  Change and tradition are twin themes of this update, trends reflecting both the Journal and the broad business world we cover. At first glance, today’s newspaper has changed more than perhaps on any day in the Journal’s history. There are new features and new ways to find and consume the news. These innovations are meant to establish the Journal as the first newspaper rethought for how readers increasingly now get their news, often in real time, from many sources, all day long.

  The changes are discussed at length in the Readers’ Guide (.pdf, 5.2 MB), which also includes a design brief from the man responsible for the redesign, Mario Garcia.

  I think it looks great; now if they’d do something about overhauling wsj.com, we’d be in business.

Recent Entries

Noteworthy content since February 2006. Browse all 112 entries in the archives.

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