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November 16, 2021 4:41 pm  #1


Toronto Star Launches Major Design Changes

Can't see it online, but if you get the physical paper, chances are you'll notice the overhaul of both its look and some of its sections, a refresh that doesn't happen often.

Toronto Star Gets A Design Refresh

 

 

November 16, 2021 6:17 pm  #2


Re: Toronto Star Launches Major Design Changes

The Hamilton Spectator had a article from the Editor saying they would be getting an overhaul too. Maybe it's all Torstar papers.

 

November 16, 2021 8:57 pm  #3


Re: Toronto Star Launches Major Design Changes

Brad wrote:

The Hamilton Spectator had a article from the Editor saying they would be getting an overhaul too. Maybe it's all Torstar papers.

From this article: "the design refresh is also launching in all of Torstar’s regional dailies today."

 

November 16, 2021 9:50 pm  #4


Re: Toronto Star Launches Major Design Changes

Looks like USA Today.


I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.
 

November 16, 2021 11:11 pm  #5


Re: Toronto Star Launches Major Design Changes

turkeytop wrote:

Looks like USA Today.

Huh? It looks nothing like USA Today..

 

November 16, 2021 11:38 pm  #6


Re: Toronto Star Launches Major Design Changes

paterson1 wrote:

turkeytop wrote:

Looks like USA Today.

Huh? It looks nothing like USA Today..

I haven't seen the real paper. Just the pictures.

Call me old fashioned, but in my opinion, newspapers lost their gravitas when they started using coloured photos. A real newspaper should be black and white.

When the Globe & Mail first went to colour, there was such an outcry from their readers, they backed off and went back to black and white. A few years later they came out with a whole new makeover, including coloured photos. The Globe just doesn't seem as serious anymore.
 


I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.
 

November 17, 2021 12:34 am  #7


Re: Toronto Star Launches Major Design Changes

What an odd opinion.  Why would intentionally using out of date technology make a newspaper seem more serious?  That makes no sense to me.

 

November 17, 2021 9:26 am  #8


Re: Toronto Star Launches Major Design Changes

Tomas Barlow wrote:

What an odd opinion.  Why would intentionally using out of date technology make a newspaper seem more serious?  That makes no sense to me.

As I said, I'm old fashioned. I listen to real radio, not online streaming. I prefer classical music to hip-hop My phone is on the kitchen wall. I don't use self checkout. I eat real food, not something squeezed from a tube.

Maybe I'm a luddite.


I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.
 

November 17, 2021 2:47 pm  #9


Re: Toronto Star Launches Major Design Changes

turkeytop wrote:

Tomas Barlow wrote:

What an odd opinion.  Why would intentionally using out of date technology make a newspaper seem more serious?  That makes no sense to me.

As I said, I'm old fashioned. I listen to real radio, not online streaming. I prefer classical music to hip-hop My phone is on the kitchen wall. I don't use self checkout. I eat real food, not something squeezed from a tube.

Maybe I'm a luddite.

Damn "Talkies"...they will never replace Silent movies!
 

Last edited by Media Observer (November 17, 2021 3:04 pm)

 

November 17, 2021 3:15 pm  #10


Re: Toronto Star Launches Major Design Changes

The KW Record has a refresh today as well.  More pronounced headlines, different font and pictures, especially sports larger.  Looks pretty good.

 

November 17, 2021 5:09 pm  #11


Re: Toronto Star Launches Major Design Changes

Media Observer wrote:

Damn "Talkies"...they will never replace Silent movies!
 

I don't go to the movies.

My late grandmother was a strict Baptist. She was absolutely against smoking, drinking, dancing, playing cards, movies and TV.

I always say that if it wasn't for my fondness for beer, I'd have made a good Baptist, because I don't do any of those other things anyway.
 

Last edited by turkeytop (November 17, 2021 5:27 pm)


I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.
 

November 17, 2021 5:37 pm  #12


Re: Toronto Star Launches Major Design Changes

turkeytop wrote:

Media Observer wrote:

Damn "Talkies"...they will never replace Silent movies!
 

I don't go to the movies.

My late grandmother was a strict Baptist. She was absolutely against smoking, drinking, dancing, playing cards, movies and TV.

I always say that if it wasn't for my fondness for beer, I'd have made a good Baptist, because I don't do any of those other things anyway.
 

I meant it as a joke...no offence (or judgement) intended.
 

Last edited by Media Observer (November 17, 2021 5:37 pm)

 

November 17, 2021 6:01 pm  #13


Re: Toronto Star Launches Major Design Changes

Media Observer wrote:

I meant it as a joke...no offence (or judgement) intended.
 

Hey. I knew you were joking. And even if you weren't I don't know how your comment could have offended anyone.

We're cool. 


I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.
 

November 17, 2021 6:03 pm  #14


Re: Toronto Star Launches Major Design Changes

Don't think it will save the newspaper industry.

 

November 17, 2021 6:12 pm  #15


Re: Toronto Star Launches Major Design Changes

turkeytop wrote:

Media Observer wrote:

I meant it as a joke...no offence (or judgement) intended.
 

Hey. I knew you were joking. And even if you weren't I don't know how your comment could have offended anyone.

We're cool. 

Appreciate that.  I'm kind of a luddite myself.  Not a member of any social media and truth be told...RA has helped me out more than once when I couldn't post a link or a video.
 

Last edited by Media Observer (November 17, 2021 7:42 pm)

 

November 17, 2021 9:37 pm  #16


Re: Toronto Star Launches Major Design Changes

AMFM wrote:

Don't think it will save the newspaper industry.

I'm afraid you might be right. The industry was struggling before covid. The dry up of revenue during the lockdowns was a fatal blow for some papers.

In normal times we spend our winters in Florida.. We haven't been back there since March 2020. When we are there, our paper is the Tampa Bay Times, Their competitor, the Tampa Tribune, went belly up about five years ago.

The Times was always a seven day a week paper. Last year they went from seven days per week down to two days per week. The days they don't publish it's available online. My wife reads it online but I don't. I only read a real paper.
To be fair to the Star, I bought today's edition. I have to admit, it still looks respectable, at least by today's standards
To their credit, they are still printed real newsprint paper. The Globe uses some kind of smooth, shiny paper
 

Last edited by turkeytop (November 17, 2021 9:42 pm)


I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.
 

November 18, 2021 1:38 am  #17


Re: Toronto Star Launches Major Design Changes

The problem with "real" newspapers is that they are yesterday's news. You are literally reading news that is 24 hours old. I'd rather have the up-to-the-second news you can get online or from television or radio.


"Life without echo is really no life at all." - Dan Ingram
 

November 18, 2021 1:47 am  #18


Re: Toronto Star Launches Major Design Changes

But a newspaper is more than news. There's analysis, opinion and features. Even the ads. You wrap the newspaper around yourself and enjoy the experience for whatever time it takes to get through it. 


I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.
 

November 18, 2021 4:34 pm  #19


Re: Toronto Star Launches Major Design Changes

turkeytop wrote:

But a newspaper is more than news. There's analysis, opinion and features. Even the ads. You wrap the newspaper around yourself and enjoy the experience for whatever time it takes to get through it. 

I'll still read a newspaper now and then for the experience you mention, if I find one in a cafe or something. But those occasions are quite rare.


"Life without echo is really no life at all." - Dan Ingram
 

November 18, 2021 5:14 pm  #20


Re: Toronto Star Launches Major Design Changes

It's my favourite Sunday morning pastime. It takes about two hours. 


I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.
 

November 18, 2021 6:25 pm  #21


Re: Toronto Star Launches Major Design Changes

Disappointed probably best describes my reaction to the new look.

Long before volunteering to become a Toronto Star carrier, I
became addicted to reading about the Leafs every afternoon when
the paper was much thicker and way more inexpensive than today's offering.
Not forgotten were those occasional 84-page Bulldog Editions but all the
changes over the years became a blur.

Just last week, I was thinking that the Star had a very classy look, warmer. Now, it's heavier, colder, with too much white space. Guess we'll have to live with it, until the next change.

 

November 18, 2021 10:15 pm  #22


Re: Toronto Star Launches Major Design Changes

My late uncle, Frank Tesky, was a photographer with the Star for a number of years during the 50s, 60s and 70s. When I was a kid, his camera seemed about the size of a toaster.

Uncle Frank died about forty years ago but, even today, his old photos appear in the Star once in a while. They always give him credit for the photo.


I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.
 

November 19, 2021 12:24 am  #23


Re: Toronto Star Launches Major Design Changes

turkeytop wrote:

My late uncle, Frank Tesky, was a photographer with the Star for a number of years during the 50s, 60s and 70s. When I was a kid, his camera seemed about the size of a toaster.

Uncle Frank died about forty years ago but, even today, his old photos appear in the Star once in a while. They always give him credit for the photo.

Your uncles photos and the work of the paper's other photographers lined the many and long halls of their former printing facility in Vaughan.  I was through the printing centre about 5 years after it opened and it was like a museum going through the hallways.  Of course The Star sold that building a few years back but some of the classic photography will still be displayed downtown at their offices.  But in Vaughan there seemed to be hundreds maybe over a thousand photos in the hallways that traced the history of The Star.  

 

November 19, 2021 2:27 am  #24


Re: Toronto Star Launches Major Design Changes

turkeytop wrote:

Looks like USA Today.

Here's what you just said:



Looks just like:    





 


RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.

 
 

November 19, 2021 12:47 pm  #25


Re: Toronto Star Launches Major Design Changes

Radiowiz wrote:

turkeytop wrote:

Looks like USA Today.

Here's what you just said:



Looks just like:    





 

I never intended to suggest the two papers look exactly alike. But my first impression upon seeing the on-screen images of the Star was that it is similar in appearance to USA Today, and it is.

However, in a subsequent post, I reported that I had gone out and bought a copy of the Star and I reported my updated opinion.

turkeytop wrote:

To be fair to the Star, I bought today's edition. I have to admit, it still looks respectable, at least by today's standards
To their credit, they are still printed on real newsprint paper. The Globe uses some kind of smooth, shiny paper
 

 


I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.
 

November 19, 2021 2:29 pm  #26


Re: Toronto Star Launches Major Design Changes

Looking at the two front pages, there really isn't any similarity.  The Star's design has more white space, more headlines and larger photos.  USA Today, more graphics, much tighter and compact, and more of a commuter paper, dense information look on the front page. I don't  know if USA Today is even widely available in Canada any longer.  Haven't seen it sold anywhere in about 20 years, other than a few large smoke shops that have papers from around the world. 

I wouldn't have called the Star's makeover major.  It was more of a refresh of the paper.  Realigning the pages makes them cleaner and easier to scan for the reader.  More white space around headlines to help  them stand out more.  I am sure advertisers will also like the new design, with less clutter on the pages, the ads stick out more.  Having worked for a few different newspaper chains, Torstar was the best at good relationships with advertisers.  They still stressed relationship selling when other media had abandoned this to a large extent.  Although with COVID and the down advertising market, I am sure relationship selling is making a come back.

Papers often do a refresh like this about every 7-10 years.  Our Waterloo Region Record and The Hamilton Spectator went through a similar change this week.   Overall looks good to me, also indicates that the print product is going to be around for a few more years.  

 

November 19, 2021 2:37 pm  #27


Re: Toronto Star Launches Major Design Changes

USA Today has been through several major redesigns in recent years. Most of what made it distinctively "USA Today" in its early years is gone now. It's just the same bland-as-paste design as any generic Gannett chain newspaper (like the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, or whatever's still left of it these days.)

Here's today's front page. 

 

November 19, 2021 2:56 pm  #28


Re: Toronto Star Launches Major Design Changes

Thanks fybush, I didn't realize that the other front page for USA Today was not the current format.  Like I said, I don't see it for sale anywhere here.   To me it looks good and clean and yes, the Star is more similar to what USA Today is doing now.  But the two papers again have more differences than similarities at least on the front.  It is odd that the headlines of the above Star front page have a blue screen behind them.   On the printed version there is no blue screen behind the headlines. 

Overall I like the front of USA Today, but as you say it is not the design that made the paper popular.  Does it still sell well in the US?  Wasn't it the most read paper at one point?

Last edited by paterson1 (November 19, 2021 2:57 pm)

 

November 19, 2021 4:14 pm  #29


Re: Toronto Star Launches Major Design Changes

The blue screen on the Press Reader version indicates, I think, that those are hyperlinks to each individual story's text version. 

As for USA Today, its circulation has plummeted sharply. It used to get a big boost from bonus circulation in hotels. That's almost all gone now. I'd be surprised if there are even 200,000 paid readers in the US these days. It was once several million. 
 

 

November 19, 2021 4:55 pm  #30


Re: Toronto Star Launches Major Design Changes

The only time I ever read USA Today, is the complimentary copy they give out when staying at a hotel. It makes better reading in the room at night than does the Gideon Bible.


I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.