Two Section Independent – Review

Today the Independent divides into two sections, and increases its cover price from 45p to 50p.

The first section contains home and foreign news, with the editorial leader and comment, and television listings on the back page. The second section contains features on sections such as health, living, the arts, including general events listings. This is followed by the business section and the sport.

The second section is 20 pages, as is the first, which is an increase of 10 pages on the old-style single section of yesterday’s edition. 4 pages are devoted to business, and 4 to sports coverage. The new section has ads from BT, Mercury and American Express.

Steve Goodman, Head of Press at the Media Business Group, told MediaTel this morning that his first impression of the paper was that it was more colourful. He said that whilst he did not dislike the second section, he thought it felt more like a weekend review section. The layout of the two sections, he believes, could be improved by putting the TV and radio guide into the second section, rather than with the news-led first. He felt that the mixing of arts with news and reviews meant that the paper lacked flow, and seemed not very well-thought out. He believes it will improve with time.

However, he added that the extra availability of colour was a plus sign for advertisers, and an alteration which he approved of.

For full details of newspaper changes, key *News Promo#.