A Note to Readers from:

The BG News Staff

Readers of The BG News may notice changes in both the newspaper’s design and content. The staff would like to explain some of these changes and the reasons behind them. Over the summer, the paper’s editorial board undertook a collaborative effort to redesign the newspaper.

The last redesign of The BG News was in 2000, and now, six years later, the paper is once again in need of an update.

For the 2006 redesign the editors worked with three hired design professionals including 2002 BGSU graduate Jeff Hindenach, who was Editor-in-Chief of the paper during the last redesign. Hindenach now works as the business design director for The San Jose Mercury News.

Also working on the redesign were 2002 BGSU graduate Nick Hurm, also a BG News alumnus, who is currently a sports designer at The Cincinnati Enquirer and Lisa Jorgensen, a news and presentation editor for Cox Ohio Publishing Southwest Group.

This time the design was updated to create a more clean and consistent look to the paper.

“To simplify things, and make it more reader friendly and make components of The BG News more accessible to the reader,” Hindenach said.

Redesigning is a continual process for newspapers. With the ever-changing industry, The BG News seeks to keep up to date on new design philosophies and trends and the concept of visual journalism, both in print and online at www.bgnews.com.

“Every couple years you want to update newspaper style and update trends to make it more readable,” Hurm said. “You want to update font trends. Everything ages over time.”

Hindenach described the last redesign as “starting from scratch.” But now with a staff of page designers, The BG News has more options.

“This staff [understands] design more and has better ideas when it comes to design,” Hindenach said. “They’re starting out with more to work with.”

The redesign, which is a continuing process, will include some changes to content as well, foremost presenting the news in a quicker, easier to digest method.

“Every day you can go to the same spot and get the same information,” Hindenach said.

The new look is designed to be colorful, creative and simple.

Striving to engage and gain new readers through innovative and vertical design the redesign includes increased visual elements. The use of photos, factboxes, graphic art and infographics, increased news briefs and teaser information will help move readers through the newspaper easier.

The BG News staff will continually strive to serve the needs of student and community audiences at BGSU by providing consistent, daily, up-to-date news coverage. As always, we want to hear from our audience, especially the students because this is your newspaper and we are here to serve you.