A new look with some new stuff in your newspaper
That’s the one question I’ll be asking readers the most in the coming weeks, as the Red Oak Express unveiled a redesigned look this week.
We changed just about everything, from the front-page flag to the size of the newsprint (made it half-a-point bigger).
I’ve redesigned a handful of newspapers in the last 20 years, and one thing I’ve learned, is no matter how much better I think it may be, some people will disagree.
There is comfort in familiarity, and some people are simply going to oppose any kind of change, regardless of if its for the better. That mantra can be applied to more than just newspapers though, but I digress.
While changing things for the sake of change directs some newspaper redesign, this time, we kept two goals in mind during the process. We either wanted changes to make the paper more eye-appealing and thus easier to read, or to allow us to offer more interesting information to readers.
As for aesthetic changes, they are fairly evident and include the new flag, headline, cutline and text styles, all of which are sharper, and easier to read.
Content wise, very few things have been subtracted, but a lot of things have been added, with more on the way.
We combined the church and community pages, which really shared news content most of the time anyway. Some of the content you saw on those pages, such as agriculture, business and educational items will be redirected elsewhere, as the community page now will primarily focus on anniversaries, birth announ-cements and weddings. We will continue to offer those items free of charge.
As for the stuff that’s been added, we will be publishing at least one, if not multiple agriculture pages each week. From the moment I started here, I felt the Express was sorely lacking in terms of its agriculture coverage, which made absolutely no sense, considering farming is the backbone of our local economy.
Now, each week, farmers will be able to read the Express for the latest news from experts at Iowa State Extention, the USDA, and NRCS, as well as updates from various associations.
In addition to a weekly gardening feature as well for the hobby-farmers, I’m also recruiting local columnists for that page as well.
New local columnists will also be featured on our education page, which will be started once school resumes in the fall. We also will be adding a rotating business page at that time.
State and local news briefs, additional court news, and an editorial cartoon are other regular features that will be phased in, many of which were at the urging of readers.
And to that end, a redesign of this nature is a living, breathing animal. Nothing is set in stone, and based on your input, more things will be added, and some eliminated.
In the next couple weeks, we are offering several opportunities for you to offer that input, including a chamber coffee May 5 and an Open House May 6 as part of the Taste of Summer promotion.
Of course, a phone call, email, letter, or personal visit will do the trick. Either way, let me hear your thoughts.
Gregory Orear is the general manager/editor of the Red Oak Express. He can be emailed at publisher@redoakexpress.com.