Really? In Kansas City?

The Kansas City Star unveiled their full new redesign today, after a couple weeks with just the feature sections. At that time I was underwhelmed, but predicted that upon holding the smaller, bolder paper in my hands, I would love it. And I do.

I'm glancing through and I must say I'm impressed; the entire news hole feels much livlier and readable than before, especially on the inside pages with the notorious pyramid ad stacks. The use of Gotham is well done to say the least, though I fear it may be getting on par with Interstate in the pantheon of sans serifs that newspapers use to look modern and edgy. But the use in terms of subheads and in the sidebars and other elements, such as the daily Top Ten rundown, is great; I *heart* the flush right by-lines; and I'm glad they're keeping the all caps headline for each section's main story, since Gotham Condensed is much cleaner than whatever typeface they had before. As far as the color, it's not quite a wallpaper feel like the European papers are going to, but it's getting there; those new presses will give the Star so much capacity for color and photo reproduction that I imagine they'll be pushing the limits in no time.

However, fonts and color are worthless if they distract or cover up the news; the big question is always that of reader-friendliness, on making the newspaper easier in getting the information you want and guiding you towards the information you need (but didn't know about). On that, the Star has succeeded in spades. Every element has been seemingly reimagined, at least on the design side; I just hope that they follow it with content worthy of the presentation. However, as great as the whole package is, and I think that in America it may now be the best designed newspaper (the Sunday Toronto Star holds the continental distinction), it still doesn't knock the Guardian off the top spot in redesigns. The Guardian wanted to go beyond the typical newspaper into the realm of daily magazine; they took a hyoooge gamble with hundreds of millions of pounds in new presses to go with the still rare Berliner format; and they have the content to put out (I believe) the best English-speaking newspaper in the world. I do like how the Guardian went blue for their new masthead, and after today, so will the Star. Imitation is the best form of flattery. But seriously, Kansas City, you are so lucky.