A1 Addition to Mix Up the Pace
Shawn McIntosh, Public editor
If you are reading this column on a busy Saturday morning before you begin a full day of hauling the kids, mowing the lawn, catching up from a busy week and hopefully having a lot of fun, I’m impressed and appreciative.
One of the things we’ve learned from research is how little time readers have to spend with the newspaper on weekday and Saturday mornings. Some scan through the headlines, reading the stuff they haven’t heard about, and return at a later time to dig in. Others have a standard routine that lasts exactly as long as two cups of coffee. Some tell us, with a little embarrassment, that they don’t always get back to the newspaper after giving Page One a quick perusal and setting it aside.
Our editors had those reading habits in mind when they designed the new daily Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which differs dramatically from the more relaxed pace of AJCSunday. In the daily, editors were trying to supply readers with an efficient report …
A civil conversation
Ken Foskett, Opinion editor
Justice Clarence Thomas, who I wrote a book about, liked to describe the Supreme Court as a place where people could disagree without being disagreeable. That’s a good description of the AJC’s new Opinion pages.
The Opinion pages are a forum where contributors can speak plainly and passionately, but still hew to the civility that defines the South.
Unlike the news sections of the paper, the Opinion pages are the one place where contributors can broadcast their bias freely. My job is to balance points of view so that many sides of an issue are fairly represented, and publish the best commentary on a wide array of topics.
I moved to Atlanta in 1989 and wrote about the city and region from a variety of perches. I know Atlantans and I know the diversity of this region. We are a community of conservatives, liberals, and most everything in between. What unites metro Atlantans, regardless of political persuasion, is a deep concern for community.
We are …
A better Atlanta
Julia Wallace, Editor
I first set foot in Atlanta in 1977 as an intern for the Atlanta Journal. I was immediately captivated by the brash and bold thinking of this community. It was the capital of the New South, emerging as a economic powerhouse that would grow and prosper.
I’m not sure I could have imagined what would transpire. Back then, the Braves were still losing, CNN was three years away from creation, Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank were still working for Handy Dan and hadn’t created Home Depot. UPS was in Connecticut. The Georgia Aquarium, the World of Coke, Cobb Energy Centre — none of that was here. We didn’t even have pandas back then.
In the past 30 years, metro Atlanta has boomed into a thriving, vibrant community that has become a wonderful home for me, my family and for millions of others.
What will it look like 30 years from now? Right now, our country faces significant economic challenges. As a nation, we will come through these challenges and become …
accessAtlanta launches new See & Do platform
We at accessAtlanta take the job of helping you figure out what to do for fun very seriously. That’s why we’ve just given our See & Do platform a very serious face lift to be much more fun based on what you’ve told us you’ve loved about our See & Do, and what you could do without.
It’s now easier than ever to not only look for what to do, but to actually make it happen. Buy that ticket. Grab that coupon. Make that reservation! We’re now a real one-stop-shop for See & Do — so you can act on your fun instincts before you get sucked back into the non-fun stuff.
What you’ve already noticed, no doubt, is the change to See & Do Search. It’s now right up at the top of accessAtlanta.com, and looks like this:
(You can still find site search, too. That’s at the bottom of every See & Do page, and in the upper right of every page on the rest of the site.)
Here’s a quick rundown of how our new See & Do Search works. To start your search, click on the type of …
Continue reading accessAtlanta launches new See & Do platform »
Listening to readers
Shawn McIntosh, Public editor
Every day, I hear from dozens of readers. I get e-mails, phone calls and my favorite — hand-written letters.
It probably won’t surprise you to know that a fair amount of that correspondence includes complaints.
So thanks for complaining. Not that I want you to be unhappy, but when you are, and you let me know, it can make the newspaper better.
In the month since we launched the new AJC design, editors have responded to feedback I’ve passed on in dozens of ways. I don’t want to imply that they have been able to satisfy every reader’s preference, as the things some readers love (the narrower page, for example) are the exact same things others readers hate.
But when there’s consistency in complaints, the editors are especially attentive to what I hear from readers.
Here are some changes they’ve made in the past month in response to reader feedback:
- Increased letter spacing of body text to improve readability.
- Changed the briefs columns on the front …
Your daily news fix
Mark Waligore, Daily editor
I don’t know about you, but my mornings are pretty hectic.
I gulp down breakfast. Drink coffee. Walk the dog. Drink more coffee. Check my Blackberry. Then catch the train or brave traffic in to work. Sometime between waking up, taking Lola for a stroll around the neighborhood and all of that coffee, I carve aside some quiet time to read my morning AJC. Usually, I’m on my screened-in porch, with (you guessed it) another cup of coffee.
On most mornings, I spend 30 minutes or so with the paper.
Thirty minutes.
That’s certainly not as much time as I would like. But on most mornings, it’s all that time allows. Our research shows that most of our daily readers — and readers of other newspapers around the country — spend only 15 minutes a day with their morning paper.
Fifteen minutes.
Over the last few weeks, you’ve heard a lot about the Sunday paper and how Sundays are different. As the Daily Editor, I wanted to chat about the …
Welcome to ajcSunday
Charles Gay, Sunday editor
[Thanks for all the feedback. Commenting for this post is now closed. To see what others had to say, scroll to the bottom.]
Sunday is different, isn’t it?
There’s a Seinfeld episode in which goofy Kramer talks about how days of the week have a different “feel.” Certainly Monday feels different from Friday. I don’t know about you, but some of those busy weekdays start to run together for me.
Not Sunday. I treasure my Sundays and I bet you do too. Rather than gulping down breakfast and speed-reading my AJC, I can linger over the A and Sports sections in the early morning. I’m gone for a few hours for church, then back home I pick up Living & Arts over lunch. Maybe some yard work, then back inside to cool off with the Business section. After supper, I’ll scoop up whatever I missed. If it’s a really good paper, I’ll still be reading it into the week.
When we revamped the AJC, we talked a lot to readers and they told us to keep that “Sunday feel” in mind. …
Next: A new Sunday
Shawn McIntosh, Public editor
Whew… what a busy week.
Tuesday we launched the redesigned AJC. We knew some readers would take to it right away – and many did. We knew others would need time to adjust – and they are telling us the new design is getting more familiar and comfortable. And we expected to hear from many readers who don’t like the change at all. It won’t surprise you to learn that they have not been shy about telling us what they don’t like.
Thanks for all the feedback. We are listening and responding.
The biggest group of complaints related to readability: type too small, or too densely packed, print too light on the page, concerns about eye strain. So we’re already making adjustments. The main body text has been tracked out, with letters moved further apart, on most pages. The secondary sans serif font used for items like The Vent and obituaries has been updated from a light to a medium weight. And we’ve added boldness and improved spacing in some …
Keep talking; we’re listening
Shawn McIntosh, Public editor
[Thanks for all the feedback. Commenting on this post is now closed. See what others said by scrolling to the end of the post.]
Just a quick note to update you. We are listening, both here and in other forums, to your suggestions and criticisms. And we’re responding. We’ve already made some adjustments and more will be coming.
The type on today’s front page is aired out a bit and we think it improves the readability. Take a look and let us know if you agree.
I’m not a color expert but even I can see we’re having some inking problems on the new recycled paper. We’re working on that. The color pictures are crisper today, but the black and white photos still look muddy. So look for improvements to come.
Vent fans, we hope you noticed we improved the spacing, restored bold lede-ins and added weight to the type. Weather junkies, we’ve heard you and will be making some adjustments to the weather page.
Your comments, e-mails and calls are helpful so …
Thanks for all the feedback
Julia Wallace, Editor
For all of you who took the time to post here or write or call or otherwise contact us about the redesign, thanks for all the feedback.
We got some cheers and more than a few complaints. That’s not unexpected when you change something as personal and habitual as a newspaper. And it’s certainly not unexpected that our request for feedback would draw far more negative comments than positive. We don’t expect to hear as much from folks who like the changes or approve of the newspaper; those who are satisfied are often less vocal.
Specific criticism is most helpful to us. For example, many readers had concerns about readability and typography that we think can be addressed. The main body type is not actually smaller; it appears the same size as before and larger than many American newspapers. But the font is more dense and we’re looking at the weight and inking and factors that may improve readability.
We’ll be making adjustments as appropriate in the days …
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