Newspaper design: Observer-Reporter

The old page contained photos from this preemie's first year, but they weren't presented in a way that made it easy to track her progress. The new page makes comparisons easy.

The largest photo on the old page did not have the visual dynamism or emotional energy of this photo, which appeared on an inside page in the published edition.

The new page added promos that increased the element count and the number of images. It also allowed a local photo to appear in color — in the published edition it appeared in black and white on an inside page.

Both the old page and the new page contained a photo and an image to promote an upcoming story. But the photo on the old page had much smaller image size, so the new page's life-size image has much more impact.

The Observer-Reporter is a 40,000-circulation daily newspaper serving Washington and Greene counties in southwestern Pennsylvania.

The paper has two kinds of readers — longtime residents of the small mining towns that dot the region and newcomers from Pittsburgh who prefer the lower taxes and suburban setting that Washington County offers.

To meet the needs of both kinds of readers, the Observer-Reporter must provide complete coverage of local news and a comprehensive report of national and international events. The redesign includes tools to help achieve this goal — digests of national news and national sports free up most of the front page and sports front for local news.

To grow its circulation, the Observer-Reporter must compete head-to-head with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which is published just 25 miles to the north. It must convince newcomers who are more oriented toward Pittsburgh and the Post-Gazette to switch to the Observer-Reporter for its more thorough coverage of Washington County news.

To succeed, the Observer-Reporter must offer a superior local report and a concise, yet complete, wire report. And it must provide both without the resources of its competitors.