Changes afoot at The Irish Times
Saturday, February 23rd, 2008It’s not just the internal machinations of The Irish Times that are facing change. From Monday the newspaper itself is to undergo a minor overhaul which will see the introduction of new supplements, an expansion of some of the ‘paper’s existing features and even a layout and design change.
Times editor Geraldine Kennedy goes into a fair amount of detail on what’s in store in an article in today’s edition and now it’s only a matter of seeing how the final product looks and seeing if it works.
From what Kennedy says the redesign itself isn’t going to be as revolutionary as, say, the one undertaken by The Guardian back in 2005 but more of a brand refresh. It’s being undertaken by Ally Palmer of Palmer Watson, a design consultancy firm that has previously worked on The Sunday Independent and the ill-fated Dublin Daily newspaper.
The firm was also behind the recent re-design of The Irish Times’ own The Ticket supplement - clearly this new brief means they got something right there.
The print version of Kennedy’s announcement is accompanied by some mock-up shots of the new-look newspaper and for the most part it looks like a cleaner, albeit largely familiar version of the newspaper. With these changes and the look of the supplements changing too - including the move to the compact format in some cases - I can imagine many will get more of a magazine-type vibe from the newspaper than they did before, in terms of look and content.
Rumours are also abound that The Irish Times are rethinking their subscription-based service in the face of the gradually improving (and, perhaps more importantly, free) online presence of its competition. Could this be coming as an added extra on Monday?
Either way Monday’s edition will be intriguing to see - although the Letters page in the proceeding editions may prove even more interesting than any of the outlets new ideas.
Blogs elsewhere
February 24th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
I just wish they’d bring out a tabloid version. For all its flaws, the Irish Times is probably the best Irish daily in many respects, but I’ve found myself buying the Indo simply because it’s far easier to read when using public transport, sitting in a cramped cafeteria or just moving about.
Broadsheets are fine for Sundays when you’ve got the time and room to sift through a newspaper at your leisure, but for weekdays, I’ll always have a preference for tabloids.
February 24th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Funnily enough I think The Irish Independent’s move into tabloid format will actually stop the competition from following suit, rather than encourage them. The plan at INM was to launch the new format and have both available for a year or so, eventually moving onto a dedicated tabloid template and ditching the broadsheet completely once the tabloid became the best seller. This would mimic what happened in the UK with The Times, The Independent etc. etc.
However many years later the sales of The Irish Independent is split 50/50 between broadsheet and tabloid and there’s no clear favourite - so the Indo is stuck printing both for fear of alienating half its readership.
That means that every issue of The Irish Independent has to be laid-out and designed twice - and articles probably have to be edited twice too (a long and shorter version for each type).
On that note, I wouldn’t like to see a tabloid version simply because it offers far less space - it’s been shown in the UK at least that the likes of The Times regularly cut down articles in their tabloid version that were available in full in their broadsheet (this was when they were making the transition).
Putting all that aside for one minute, I can’t see The Irish Times moving to tabloid even if The Irish Independent had made a success of it. Clearly there’s no great outcry for this amongst the readers but more importantly I think the newspaper would be afraid of damaging its image.
I may be way off here, but my feeling is they’re staying broadsheet for the foreseeable future. If they do change I suspect it will be to Berliner - however as that requires different printing presses it won’t happen for a while. It’s only 7 or 8 years ago that the company invested hugely in new printing facilities in CityWest - something that nearly bankrupted them.
February 24th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
I’m actually kind of surprised that the broadsheet Indo is selling just as much as the tabloid. A few years back I used to work in a small newsagents and we always had far more broadsheets left over than tabloids. Do you know if they’ve always been published on a 50-50 basis?
I’d never really considered the possibility that printing facilities might be a consideration the management would have to consider, which probably shows how little I know about the industry, but from a ‘common sense’ point of view, I thought that a smaller, more portable version of a paper would outsell a larger version provided that content was close to identical. I wonder why the Irish market differs from the British in this respect? Whatever about the Irish Times, it’s a wonder that The Examiner hasn’t made the jump.
February 24th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
The Irish Times needs to get over its self and downsize.
Compared to tabloids or the Guardian, it’s a pain trying to read it everywhere - on the bus, tram, and train, and eating at the dinner table, in the canteen, at the bar, or at your desk in work.
I’ve even seen a young lawyer having problems changing pages in district court.
A move from broadsheet to tabloid or Berliner for any paper will work well or not depending on how it is handled.
“Clearly there’s no great outcry for this amongst the readers”
Was there an outcry among readers for this €5m revamp?
February 24th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
@Niall - I’m not sure what proportion they print the Independent and if it’s 50/50 or skewed towards one format or another.
There’s every chance that your experience isn’t unique but that certain formats sell better in certain places - so the compact sells well in city centre but the broadsheet sells well in suburban and rural areas.
As for changing format, The Irish Times could easily print in tabloid format (they already print many tabloid format newspapers like the Metro and Gazette newspapers. I think they print Gloss magazine there too, so their presses are versatile. There’s the possibility that the printing press they use is capable of Berliner but I know the Guardian had to import theirs for the chance from Germany… that could be because their previous presses were really out of date, though.
@Cian: Was there an outcry among readers for this €5m revamp?
I doubt it, but the conservative nature of it suggests that they’re expecting an outcry in opposition to it. I’m willing to guess we’ll read plenty of letters complaining about the new look - probably more complaints than praise anyway.
I think there is a certain amount of stuffiness that needs to be overcome when considering the move to tabloid but I don’t think making something compact is always a bonus. Forgetting about space issues there’s even the point of becoming just another tabloid-sized newspaper in a very crowded marketplace - something The Guardian was wise to avoid with its changes.
March 4th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
I am very disappointed with the new expanded opinion section. I expected to see a few new heavy hitters added. It was probably too much to ask to drop some of the old tired broken records. Frankly, I find very little in Vincent Browne’s columns anymore and I ignore John Waters. Occasionally O’Toole is very solid. Basically, I expected the new section to contain a bit more Analysis and less opinion. Having some old hack just pour out their thoughts before clicking ’send’ on a weekly basis is poor enough. Without naming names, at least one of the new columnists is dreadful (bad writer, worse arguer, and sloppy thinker).
In general the face lift is welcome and freshens the thing up a bit. (As for supplements, for me they hit the recycling bin before opening, but that’s a matter of taste).
In short - nice new look, missed opportunity to spruce up the content.