Fairfax’s week of relaunches continues with Sun-Herald and AFR revealing new looks
The new Sun-Herald
A year on from its last relaunch, Fairfax Media’s struggling Sunday tabloid the Sun-Herald has been through another redesign which sees the end of a separate sport section and columnists moving from the back pages to the middle of the paper.
The redesign is the newspaper’s third in less than three years. It follows Monday’s relaunch of the weekday Sydney Morning Herald and The Age into compact format which also saw sport move to the back page of the main paper.
Among the columns which have been dropped is discussion page The Loaded Dog.
Returning to the paper after several months with Jane Caro as stand-in columnist, is Annabel Crabb.
In a note to readers headed “You spoke, and we have listened”, editor Kate Cox writes:
“By popular demand, the S section and Unwind have merged. So now you’ll find gossip, parties and fashion with music, movies and stage, all in Sunday’s biggest and best entertainment section.
“What hasn’t changed is our commitment to putting out a paper that informs and entertains, that breaks news and that helps you enjoy your Sunday.”
The previous redesign saw the Sun-Herald move from a red masthead to blue. Today’s redesign saw a white masthead reversed out of blue.
In the first quarter of 2010, prior to its redesign-before-last, the Sun-Herald’s sales stood at 442,650. In the most recent circulation numbers, this had dropped to 313,477, a drop of 32% in less than three years.
Meanwhile, Fairfax Media’s Australian Financial Review will unveil a redesign of its own on Monday. The redesign for the weekday edition is a relatively subtle one, with the same masthead remaining, but moving to left aligned rather than being centred. The new design features an updated typeface throughout, the relatively rarely used font family Sueca.
Meanwhile, the Weekend Financial Review will go through a more noticeable transformation, including a radical new masthead labelling it AFR Weekend:
Editor-in-Chief, Financial Review, Michael Stutchbury said: “Our new design, developed in conjunction with James de Vries, Soo Coughlan and their international design team at de Luxe, delivers a premium reading experience that respects how readers want to read a newspaper in this digital age. Harnessing the best traditions of newspaper design and the Financial Review’s six decades of journalistic authority, the result is a clean, smart and classic design that helps readers navigate their way through the unrivalled business, financial and political news and information we provide each day.”
The cover price of the AFR will rise from $3 to $3.30.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Gotta love all this!
“By popular demand, the S section and Unwind have merged.” – yes, I’m sure thousands of readers were writing to the Sun-Herald to say “Please merge the S and Unwind sections, please!”. What rubbish.
Aso the the AFR’s weekday makeover: surely there’s got to be LOT more to this than left-justifying the masthead?
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Hi Jack B Nimble,
Having now held today’s AFR in my hand, I agree.
In my view, it’s a terrific redesign. It looks great. One tiny quibble: Rear Window looked a little lost, but otherwise, fantastic. Now one of the best looking papers in the market.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
The Herald redesigns – as JB Nimble notes with the SUNHerald – are all about killing the wasteful sections. There is simply no other rationale (tabloids are actually less efficient consumers of newsprint). And the AFR continiues on its path to oblivion in yet again mimicking the Oz with its redesign effects and weekend masthead.
A plaintive plea: it’s the CONTENT you have to get right.
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…in addition to Jack B. Nimble’s earlier comment, I really did LOL at Kate Cox’s mention that the Sun-Herald “breaks news”… She mustn’t be on Twitter 😉
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