Aptly downsized: Frankfurter Rundschau
During a recent trip to Germany, I found out that many (serious) newspapers are now slowly adapting the tabloid format. In the past, only small regional or at least very disrespected newspapers used the smaller format. Big newspapers almost became a status symbol for the educated, even if one could not read the paper due to a lack of space in which to unfold it. At the same time smaller formats became a symbol for the boulevard press.
The Frankfurter Rundschau is a fairly respected newspaper in Germany, and it, too, has recently taken on the challenge of adapting a smaller tabloid format, just like its international siblings The Independent and The Times.
Personally, I was pleasantly surprised when I first saw the redesigned newspaper, even though I did hear about the heavy criticism beforehand. Along with some refreshing typography, the newspaper made a very good use of grid systems and I believe that it is worthy of some analysis.
The Frankfurter Rundschau used to be printed at a size of 400 x 570 mm. Unfortunately, this format is very difficult to handle and more importantly very difficult to fill.
Certain individuals even joked that the huge number of editors that were fired by the Frankfurter Rundschau over the past years, is due to their inability to fill these large spreads. More seriously, however, the newspaper itself claims that it wants to attract younger readers and that the new tabloid format (285 x 400 mm) is an attempt to move with the times.
Below is a picture of the front-page of the old and the redesigned Frankfurter Rundschau:
The old Frankfurter Rundschau to the left, the new, redesigned one to the right. Image taken from fontblog.de
Comparing the two frontpage one can immediately see the extreme difference in size. Additionally, the redesigned frontpage seems to reserve a much bigger proportion of the page for images: There is less content above the fold. Especially the increase in space that is used for images causes many people to believe that the change to the smaller tabloid format was a mistake for the Frankfurter Rundschau: The overall appearance of the redesigned newspaper now starts to resemble the boulevard press more and more.
On the other hand, I believe that the subdued and classical serif typography (as well as a healthy reputation) helps the newspaper to uphold its status as a reliable source of news.
But back to the grids: If one looks at the front-page [to the left] of the redesigned Frankfurter Rundschau, you will recognise a nine-column grid. Interestingly, the front-page of the old Frankfurter Rundschau was also based on a nine-column grid. Unfortunately, I was not able to figure out to which grid the footer and the header are aligned to. While this ‘misalignment’ might be intentional to create a more dynamic appearance, it leaves me questioning the grid behind the newspaper.
The nine-column grid allows for a great deal of experimentation, as there are relatively many ways of arranging content on a page. However, the majority of the newspaper is arranged on a five-column grid, probably because a nine-column grid either creates a block of text that is too wide or too narrow. Of course, this might also be a ten-column grid, however, I couldn’t find any elements that actually cut the main columns of the mentioned five-column grid.
Two examples of a spread designed with a five-column layout in the redesigned Frankfurter Rundschau.
Gri(n)ding continuity?
One would expect a newspaper to use the same grids for the same sections. However, as I found out recently, the grid that is being used on the frontpage is not always the same: a nine-column grid if an image is to the left/right of the story, a five-column grid if it is above it. Again, this layout variation might create a more dynamic appearance, ‘attracting a younger audience’, yet at the same time it can also alienate existing readers who cannot adapt to a changing medium that quickly. Personally, I must admit that I like this layout variation: It differentiates the Frankfurter Rundschau from other newspapers that tend to only ever use the same grid.
Subsequently, I started looking for even more variation; and found it pretty quickly. Some of the financial section is based on an adjusted version of the five-column grid, to make room for stock market tables. And if one looks hard enough one might just find a four-column grid in yet another section. Dynamics for some, chaos for others and for most, just time that they will need to get used to the new format and layout.
Mainstream acceptance
Most people will not look at the new Frankfurter Rundschau and start to analyse grid systems. In fact most of the feedback that I got from various people involved the fact that they cannot find what they are looking for, as the new format also involved creating a totally different page map.
Other complaints include that specific sections, like for example Sports or Finance, can no longer be divided that well from the rest of the newspaper, something that is extremely favourable when there is more than one reader.
However, the most eccentric comment that I have heard is related to the typography of the redesigned paper: The Sudoku puzzles use a font with too little weight; the numbers loose themselves between the annotations of true Sudoku freaks. While that might be one of the lesser problems, editors do have to figure out how they are going to respond to critique, especially the problem of old content that has previously never moved.
It is the Frankfurter Rundschau that now shines like a bright star on the horizon of grid variation, especially, amongst the more traditional newspapers. Whether, this is necessarily a good thing is debatable. However, it is good to see a newspaper experiment with more than one type of layout, even though the majority of the existing readers cannot quite get accustomed to this change, yet.
P.S.: Open for suggestions
Since I posted the original version of this weblog entry, I found out that the Frankfurter Rundschau seems to be very open for suggestions on how to improve their redesign. While some of my remarks must have been mentioned before, the one involving Sudoku puzzles probably had not. Nevertheless, the weight of the puzzles was changed a couple of days after I posted this entry: Another praise for the newspaper, which obviously seems to be keen to keep up to its reputation.