An East Midlands daily has become the latest newspaper to drop the ‘evening’ from its masthead and undergo a revamp.

The Nottingham Evening Post is now the Nottingham Post, reflecting the fact that it has been published overnight since last year.

The main masthead has changed from ‘Evening Post’, with ‘Nottingham City of Legends’ in smaller type face above it, to ‘Nottingham Post’ underneath ‘The City of Legends’.

Among the other changes is a reduction in point size and a new font for the front page headline, now written in utopia bold, which editor Malcolm Pheby says is easier to read, while the point size of the main text in stories is also slightly bigger.

Story count is unaffected by the increase while photographs are being given more emphasis which he says has been well received by readers since the makeover.

There are also more letters and guest writers, a new daily picture section on births, weddings, celebrations and events while obituaries have their own section.

Malcolm told HTFP: “What we’re trying is to make the paper fresher and easier to read.

“Nottingham is a very metropolitan and cosmopolitan city and we felt that the newspaper didn’t match the complexity of the city. It’s a tricky balance to strike while still appealing to our core readers.”

On the decision to drop ‘evening’ from the masthead, Malcolm said: “Quite a few of our readers were saying ‘It’s not really an evening paper’ and we wanted to get Nottingham into the masthead.

“We are proud to be part of Nottingham and wanted to emphasise our connection to the city.”

The Nottingham Post joins a growing list of evening dailies to change their names following the switch from same-day to overnight publication, including sister Northcliffe daily the Derby Telegraph which changed its name from the ‘Evening Telegraph’ 12 months ago.

In September, the North Wales based Evening Leader became ‘the Leader’ and underwent a makeover, introducing daily tailored sections and new sports and celebrity news coverage.

Other papers to lose the ‘Evening’ tag in recent years include the Birmingham Evening Mail, although that only ceased same-day publishing at the start of this year, Portsmouth Evening News, now The News, and Southend Evening Echo, now simply Echo.

Northcliffe-owned newspapers the Croydon Advertiser and Western Morning News/Western Daily Press have also undergone a makeover and relaunch in recent weeks.

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Front pages from the final ‘Evening Post’ on Saturday followed by the new-look Nottingham Post from Monday and yesterday.

Comments

Hilary (21/04/2010 10:21:39)
Why do the Northcliffe dailies all have to look the same all of a sudden? Branding again, I suppose. Individuality out the window. Even less attachment to their own area.

Onlooker (21/04/2010 10:58:17)
I’m not aware of any ‘legends’ coming out of Nottingham. Robin Hood was a Yorkshireman.

Yes (21/04/2010 12:45:58)
And Brian Clough was from Middlesbrough.

Fudgy (21/04/2010 13:16:48)
This was a good opportunity to change the awful font used in their masthead. It looks like something from the 70s.
They’ve missed their chance to look like a paper that is publishing in 2010.

Maid Marion (21/04/2010 14:31:32)
Onlooker is right, Robin Hood is buried in Brighouse.

Billy Davies (21/04/2010 14:42:25)
Nottingham legends? Torvill and not forgetting Dean, Su Pollard, DH Lawrence, Sherrie Hewson, Jermaine Jenas, Jermaine Pennant, Andrew Cole, Carl Froch, Leslie Crowther. A true city of legends.

Hengist Pod (22/04/2010 13:43:09)
I was trying to think of a famous band that came from Nottingham – but couldn’t. Any contenders?

Northern Snapper (23/04/2010 13:00:03)
Answer for Hengist Pod: what about Robin Hood and his BAND of merry men?