Yesterday saw the launch of the new Independent On Sunday, with a new look broadsheet and Real Life section, a revamped business section which includes sport and a brand new section in the shape of Spending – the “practical guide to travel, property and personal finance.”
The main broadsheet section now has a new masthead, taking the style of the “Independent” from its daily sister, though the font of the headlines and text remains the same. While it looks better for it, claims that the news section would be expanded appear slightly over-exaggerated since the size of the increase amount to one page compared to last week’s edition. The main addition in the broadsheet appears to be the inclusion of some longer “Focus” articles.
Real Life also gets a new masthead with a thinner, straighter and more modern look. This is transferred to all the pages and definitely gives the section a more upmarket look and feel. The layout of the pages has also been changed to look like a newspaper, rather than its previous magazine-like look. It still has 16 pages.
The Business section again gets a new look – as well as a new masthead the FT-inspired pink paper is dropped. Sport is moved from the broadsheet to the back of the section, though the pagination again remains the same at 24. Interestingly, again compared with last week’s Independent On Sunday, there is one page less of sports coverage. One then wonders where all the personal finance has gone and the answer is to the new section, Spending.
Spending does a good job at filling the yawning travel gap which previously hampered the title. It has a similar design to Real Life and has a bias towards travel. It has twenty pages, with ten of these borrowed from the old Business section in the shape of property and finance items.
The paper claims that the overhaul makes it “bigger, better, brighter”. The travel section and the new design and layout work extremely well and are a welcome change for the title, but overall the title has not been radically expanded. One gets the impression that the title is robbing Peter to pay Paul in terms of pages. At the end of the day all we have extra is two pages in the broadsheet and ten pages of travel while sport and personal finance/property are merely shunted from one section to another. Its true that there is a new seven day listings guide in the otherwise unchanged Review section but the pagination remains at 72. Something must be losing out somewhere.
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