TAKEAWAY: The waiting is over for readers of Gulf News (UAE) who have been anticipating the switch from broadsheet to Berliner format. Starting today, the Gulf News is more compact, easier to read and wears a new design, too!
This is the weekend edition of TheMarioBlog and will be updated as needed. The next new blog post is Monday, June 4.
Update #5,Saturday, June 2, Tampa, 06:25
Here are pages from the Saturday, June 2 edition of the new Gulf News
A happy trio with fresh copy of the first Gulf News as Berliner: (from left) Miguel Gomez, design director; Abdul Hamid Ahmad, editor in chief;Mohammad Al Mezel, managing editor
His Highness Sheikh Nahyan , United Arab Emirates Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, reads the new Gulf News today
It is June 1 and a historic day for
Design director Miguel Gomez conducts a critique of the first Berliner edition for the newsroom
It is a smaller canvas in which to present the information and this presents special challenges and opportunities:
Readers will probably not fold their newspaper as they read, giving designers better opportunities for double page spreads.
Advertisers will benefit from a “cozier” positioning of ads in terms of how they appear next to editorial content.
Readers will see more one-page topics that facilitate reading a story from beginning to end
At a time when people consume their news through various platforms, the smaller pages will be more synchronized with what happens visually online, the phone and the tablet.
The design changes
J Ford Huffman, formerly of USA Today, conducts critique in the newsroom. J Ford has come to the Gulf News for two weeks to work with the editors on content/writing/editing strategies
Compare the old broadsheet Gulf News and its new, leaner Berliner format
A change from broadsheet to Berliner must be accompanied by some necessary changes in the design as well, starting with the grid. At the Gulf News, we worked closely with the talented team of design director Miguel Angel Gomez to guarantee that the new, fresh format will unveil changes in the design:
Typographically —-The new fonts adopted are: Glosa and Salvo Sans.
Glosa will be the main typeface of the Gulf News, was designed especially for publications. It is elegant, modern and delicate. It was created by the Portuguese type designer Dino dos Santos, who worked with Miguel and his team to produce various styles exclusive to Gulf News.
Salvo Sans,a highly expressive and friendly typeface with many styles—from light to black and from regular to extra condensed— is used throughout used the paper. Designed by the Font Bureau’s Cyrus Highsmith for magazines, the Gulf News emphasizes Salvo Sans in the Sport and tabloid! section. But it is also a distinctive element of the weekend edition’s identity.
For the text of the Classified section, we selected Retina, designed by Tobias Frere-Jones for the stock pages of The Wall Street Journal. Retina is recognized worldwide for its superb legibility at very small sizes.
The grid —A six column grid prevails throughout, with variations for specific pages within the design.
The color palette —-The new Gulf News is color coordinated. But it also offers surprises for the readers. For example, the logo of the newspaper is NOT in one specific color, but may vary from day to day, covering some six different hues. Each of the sections will have its own identifying color.
According to Abdul Hamid Ahmad, editor in chief of Gulf News, early reactions are positive: “Everyone happy and proud,” he said.
How the editors presented the new product to readers
From Abdul Hamid Ahmad, Editor in Chief, Gulf News:
The improvement continues decades of Gulf News’ leadership and innovation in the media, and is part of Gulf News’ commitment to excellence in journalism and offering its readers the best coverage of the region and the world.
But Gulf News has not just changed its size. We have changed the way we lay out our pages, and today’s newspaper is the first to bring you a new and fresh design that is functional, aesthetically pleasing and contemporary. The content, which our readers have repeatedly voted as the best in the country and our region, maintains its vital focus on readers concerns. To that end, we are also adding new several sections that cater to the different tastes and interests of our readers- from politics to entertainment, from health and education to personal finance, technology and motoring. We hope that you find these sections both informative and entertaining.
From Mohammed Almezel, Managing Editor, Gulf News
A few weeks ago, a pan-Arab report on the status of the media ranked Gulf News as the most read newspaper in the UAE. Gulfnews.com was also ranked as the most visited news website in the country. The report, compiled and analyzed by two international media auditing companies, Ipsos and Deloitte, was released by the Arab Media Forum.
It was one of those moments where one feels ‘on top of the world.’ And today, is another moment. Our team has never been prouder as they were when we sent the last page of
My own piece as published in Gulf News
This is the page where Gulf News editors explained the specifics of the change to Berliner format
Why go to Berliner?
http://gulfnews.com/polopoly_fs/it-s-a-new-era-1.1030515!infoDup%5B1%5D/uploadInfo/fileUpload/infoFile/p12.pdf
Previous blog posts on Gulf News going Berliner:
https://garciamedia.com/blog/articles/report_from_dubai_gulf_news_prepares_to_switch_to_berliner_format
https://garciamedia.com/blog/articles/report_from_dubai_part_2_gulf_news_prepares_for_berliner_tablet_progress
Suggested Weekend Reads
– USA: Mobile dominates latest Internet trends during All Things Digital conference in California
http://knightcenter.utexas.edu/blog/00-10314-mobile-dominates-latest-internet-trends-during-all-things-digital-conference-californi
– UK: Times websites drop paywall for Jubilee celebrations
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=49429&c=1
– USA: Now playing: The New York Times signs on to Hulu to reach a new audience for its long videos
http://www.niemanlab.org/2012/05/now-playing-the-new-york-times-signs-on-to-hulu-to-reach-a-new-audience-for-its-long-videos/
– USA: 5 Lessons From The Oregon Daily Emerald’s Digital Reinvention
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2012/05/5-lessons-from-the-oregon-daily-emeralds-digital-reinvention152.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+pbs%2Fmediashift-blog+%28mediashift-blog%29
– USA: WaPo must transform to survive
http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/wapo_must_transform_to_survive.php?page=all
– USA: The one chart that should scare the hell out of print media
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/175619/the-one-chart-that-should-scare-the-hell-out-of-print-media/
– USA: 3 new ideas on the future of news from MIT Media Lab students
http://www.niemanlab.org/2012/05/3-new-ideas-on-the-future-of-news-from-mit-media-lab-students/
The iPad Design Lab: Storytelling in the Age of the Tablet
Video walkthrough of the iPad prototype of iPad Design Lab
