One of Britain’s smallest regional dailes is sporting a bright new look this week after its new editor carried out a wholesale redesign.

The Burton Mail, which has a current circulation of 12,376, had adopted a new masthead as well as a new headline font called Utopia in a bid to give it a “cleaner, more contemporary” look.

The redesign comes as former York Press and Peterborough Evening Telegraph editor Kevin Booth continues to put his stamp on the paper following his arrival in the editor’s chair last September.

In November, he oversaw a restructure which saw the departures of the former deputy editor, Andrew Parker, and the news editor, Jonathan Horsfall.

Kevin said in a message to Mail readers: “From today, your favourite regional daily is available in a bright new format.

“Over the last few months we’ve steadily increased our story count and introduced new features to improve our service.

“But now we’ve made the Mail even more of a must-have for its loyal readers.

“Your redesigned daily now has a cleaner, more contemporary look that makes it stand out from the rest.”

The new-look Burton Mail following editor Kevin Booth’s revamp

The old version of the Mail which saw service for the final time last week.

Comments

Onlooker (29/04/2010 11:39:49)
‘Regional editor faces down Tories in election row’
How brave. Not. The North East has been in the clammy grip of the Labour Party and Peter Mandelson for years. It would be more genuinely brave to stand up to that bunch of charlatans. I also note HTFP has not allowed comments on this topic. Gagging your readers will not change their minds.

Freddie (29/04/2010 17:31:06)
‘A cleaner, more copntemporary look’??? When will people get it? This is a classic example of misplaced subbing priorities. It’s all about design, design, design nowadays yet most of these redesigns are just window dressing. A redesign must have a purpose – just saying ‘clean and contemporary’ is nowhere near good enough. Words, headlines and picture choice are all more important. Anyone can move boxes round a screen. My first reaction when I saw the images was to question which was the new one. In terms of impact, they seem very similar. If you are going to redesign, do it for good reasons. This is just pick a font, any font design. I’d be interested to find out the thinking behind the redesign. What research was done? What was done to encourage single copy sales? What is the thinking for inside pages? Mind you, this is the trend in subbing these days. Everyone wants to move boxes around screens … the actual work on the words is very much the second-rate job. It strikes me that all this shuld be reversed … make the best, most expreienced subs work on the words and leave the box arranging to the rest. Sorry for the rant. I’ve been there, I’ve moved boxes round screens. Honestly, anyone ccan do it. As for good copy subbing, that’s quite different.

Freddie (29/04/2010 17:33:55)
Before anyone says anything – I know there are typos!!! I banged it out in a fit of frustration.
Apologies

Bean Counter (30/04/2010 08:25:14)
Well said Freddie – mistaking the packaging for the product is a huge current issue.

Chopper (30/04/2010 12:30:33)
The last time I bought a copy it was 40p for 36 sparse pages of old news…perhaps the content should be a priority rather than the cosmetics.

FAST WOMAN (30/04/2010 14:23:55)
Beancounter and Freddie are spot on. The content of so many print offerings right now, including a lot of the supposedly prettier ones, makes you want to weep.
Is there another commercial industry where ‘brand management’ often seems to involve putting out mediocre or downright shabby products?