When I received news that changes were in store for our newspaper, I was a bit concerned with what was coming down the pipe.
I’ve been involved with a couple newspaper re-designs over the years; every time our staff worked hard to design pages and create reader-friendly layouts which delivered a balance between ads and stories. And every time we thought we had figured it out... like some magic formula miraculously materialized to give readers and advertisers exactly what they want every week of the year.
What you’ll notice about this new layout and design is that it’s simple and clean. We’ve introduced new colours, a new logo and a variety of reader-focused page elements to help bring readers into our stories.
We’ve added navigation boxes on the front page to give you a hint of what’s inside the paper.
You’ll notice the headline and story fonts have also changed, and they’re more easily read compared to our old font, too.
Page Two will be completely void of ads (well, we will have a small ad at the top of the page), and this is our way of giving additional space and allowing for to strong images and quality stories (and in most cases the most important stories to you this week) to be prominently displayed without competing visually for your reading time.
We’re also focusing on how the advertisements are laid out each week too. While our affiliations with the Alberta Weekly Newspaper Association mandates we provide a minimum percentage of editorial space each week, we want to make sure those editorial spaces enable us to display these stories properly.
Don’t worry about these changes, folks - if you were to look back in our archives you’d see a number of different styles, designs and logo changes over the years. Over the years we’ve tinkered with design, but this is the first time we’ve really had a cohesive plan to give you a new and improved product.
Now only if our gocery store ads were ‘scratch and sniff’ - that would be cool!
We welcome your feedback at icanadian@camrosecanadian.com and we hope you enjoy your new Camrose Canadian.
So Hasbro is coming out with a new version of the old favorite - Monopoly - and you can get involved in the revival of the old family favorite.
By visiting www.monopolyvote.ca you can help choose what cities will be part of the game. While Camrose isn’t listed as one of the major cities, we are listed as one of the 20 Wildcard cities to be part of the game. Voting for Wildcard Cities starts on February 28 - so get ready to help put Camrose on the map... again!
Speaking of being on the map, all eyes will be on Camrose this week as we’re hosting the Olympic Torch on its journey across Canada. The flame arrives in Camrose tomorrow morning and there’s something for everyone during the noon hour events planned for the Edgeworth Centre area. Check the ad on the back of the Canadian to see what excitement you’re in for... don’t miss it!
My favourite Olympic memory came in 1988 when I was on tour in Greece. We gathered around the TV in the hotel lobby one morning just as Ben Johnson’s 100 m race was about to start - our group of Canadians actually held the tour bus back as we watched in hopeful anticipation, followed by cheers and a strong feeling of national pride as Johnson beat Carl Lewis with a time of 9.79 seconds.
Unfortunately, we all know what happened next...
