Readers of a weekly newspaper are being polled on whether to revive its old masthead ahead of a relaunch.
The Falmouth Packet is conducting the survey on whether to bring back the masthead, which featured a picture of a packet boat.
The packet – a type of boat used extensively during the 18th and 19th century to transport mail, passengers and freight domestically – featured on the newspaper’s masthead from its first issue in 1858 until 2004.
A redesign then saw the more generic logo adopted, but a recent discussion on Facebook prompted the Packet to reconsider the use of the traditional branding on its front page.
The Packet’s traditional pre-2004 masthead, above, and the current masthead, below
In a message to readers, editor Paul Armstrong said: “For 146 years the paper bore an ‘olde worlde’ design which had been on the front page since the paper was first published.
“Now while the new masthead incorporated into a redesign of the paper seemed like the right decision at the time, here at the Packet we have never lost our fondness for the old design.
“And now in 2016 we are looking at bringing the old masthead back and want to know what you think.
“Should we replace the current masthead with the old one or keep the current one? Have a look at the pictures of the old and current masthead and let us know what you think by voting in our online poll.”
So far, more than 90pc of respondents have voted in favour of returning to the traditional masthead.
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Could we have a poll on a return to traditional management here as well?
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Kernow – you mean a la Terry Lambert? Great editor, sorry when he retired.
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The Whitehaven News has a wonderful masthead which was under threat in a modernising move back in nineties. There was an outcry & it survived. The point is that these mastheads are part of a paper’s identity – the Packet’s should not have been abandoned in the first place.
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No surprise here
Thousands wasted throughout the industry on the misplaced modernisations of Brands with hundreds of years behind them.
At least it gave regional editors something to do.
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Wouldn’t they be better off concentrating on improving the quality of the copy and the overall value and feel of the paper rather than polling to see whether a ship in the mast head is the readers preferred choice?
Too much time spent on trivial matters while the core product and its readership base continues to rot away
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I remember being told years ago that Lord Beaverbrook once bought the Falmouth Packet believing he had bought a ship. True? A good story anyway!
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Ps. If we are mentioning ex-Packet editors, then surely John Marquis is The King.
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