Herald To Launch New Size, Design
Published 2:15 pm Tuesday, July 21, 2015
FARMVILLE — The Farmville Herald will have a new size, a new look and improved content next Wednesday.
“As society evolves, community newspapers like The Herald must also evolve to keep readers interested in the content being produced,” said Sports Editor Hannah Davis, who has worked with graphic designer Staci Bridge on the new design and format in recent weeks. “A part of the evolution of community newspapers is the look and feel of the print edition.”
The goal of redesigning and resizing the Herald is to give readers a new, more convenient experience, while making the paper easier to navigate and read, said Publisher Steve Stewart.
Among the changes that will take place with the Wednesday, July 29, edition:
• The width of the newspaper will change from the current 14 inches to the industry standard of 11 inches, the same size as other area newspapers such as the Richmond Times-Dispatch, The News and Advance in Lynchburg, and the Courier-Record in Blackstone. The length will not change.
• New, more attractive fonts will be used for headlines, photo captions and text.
• Sports will be featured prominently on the cover of the second, or “B,” section each issue, giving more prominence to a topic of intense interest to many readers. The Opinion page will move to Page 4 of the front, or “A,” section.
• A “C” section, entitled “Life,” will be published once a week, usually on Fridays, and replace the current section entitled “The Weekender.” The Life section will include a cover story and several pages of community news, columnists and event coverage that currently runs on pages entitled “Social & Lifestyles.”
New premium advertising positions will be created on the front page and section fronts, giving area businesses a prominent way to market themselves.
“An additional change that will help readers is that everything will finally have a permanent place in the paper,” Davis said. “In the past, readers might have seen obituaries on one page one week and then on another page the following week. This will no longer be an issue for the Herald. Each page will have the same content on it for every edition, and readers will no longer have to search the entire paper to find the content they enjoy.”
See Friday’s edition for more information on content improvement that is planned in conjunction with the redesigned newspaper.