LA Times launches redesign

The Los Angeles Times launched its redesign Tuesday, becoming the last major Tribune Co. newspaper to do so.

The redesign isn't nearly as dramatic as what many other newspapers, including its sister paper the Chicago Tribune, have undergone. The changes are subtle, like removing datelines and altering the bylines to show where the story was reported from. Overall, the paper has gotten fairly good reviews, the Times Web site reported Tuesday. But there have also been several complaints.

The 126-year-old newspaper, which is the fourth-largest newspaper in the country with a reported 2007 circulation of 773,884, joins other major papers like the Tribune, the Baltimore Sun, the Hartford Courant and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel who have all launched redesigns in the last few months.

"How do we find that sweet spot that honors our tradition but makes it feel like a modern newspaper," said Times Assistant Managing Editor Michael Whitley in a Times video about the redesign. "I'd say the way to do that is we made content and information a first priority.

"It just feels a little fresher,:" Whitley said. "It's a little bolder. We're proud of who we are and we think it's okay to say it a little bigger than we have maybe in the past."

The Sunday edition is also supposed to be quite different with the section front flags basked in full colors that reflect the Southern California environment.

Look at the redesign here.

Read comments from Tribune Co. chief innovation officer Lee Abrams about the LA Times redesign here.

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