New-look Guardian hits the streets
Readers had their first glimpse of the long awaited new-look Guardian newspaper today as it hit news stands and doormats.
Copies of the midsize Berliner format paper, somewhere between tabloid and broadsheet, rolled off the company’s £50m (€74.2m) new presses.
Earlier, editor Alan Rusbridger had declared broadsheet newspapers “dead”, saying people increasingly found them inconvenient.
The relaunch also saw a complete redesign. Gone was the iconic masthead which had topped the paper since 1988. It was replaced by a softer, three tone blue and white logo. Typefaces, headlines and layout had been changed throughout.
The paper also became the first UK national to be printed exclusively in full colour.
Even in a smaller size, the first edition still managed to fit six separate stories on the front page and a front page editorial welcoming readers.
Continuing the paper’s ambition of using striking photography, the front page carried a large picture of Australian bowler Shane Warne in Ashes action.
The entire centre spread was taken up by a dramatic photograph of British soldiers in rubble strewn Belfast streets during the weekend’s riots.
The paper’s sport pages were given their own 12-page section and the G2 supplement had become a smaller, stapled news magazine.
In his editorial, Mr Rusbridger said research had shown readers increasingly found broadsheets difficult to handle in situations like commuting to work.
He said: “We hope you enjoy this new Guardian. To those hundreds of thousands of readers who have stayed with us throughout – thank you for your loyalty.
“To the few who found the old broadsheet paper forbidding or inconvenient - welcome back. To new readers who may have been intrigued enough by the Berliner to buy it for the first time in a while – or possibly ever – welcome too. We hope the Guardian may surprise you.”
The Guardian is the third broadsheet to move to a smaller size, following the Independent and the Times.
The revamp took 18 months of planning and is reported to have cost a total of around £80m (€118.8m).
Guardian Newspapers have bought new presses, based in Manchester and Stratford in East London, to print the new-look title.
The company hopes the new design will claw back thousands of readers lost to its rivals when they adopted a popular smaller format.
