Extreme WSJ makeover

Published Jan 02 2007, 04:49 PM by Adam Reilly

As a too-casual reader of the Wall Street Journal, my reaction when I picked up the reconfigured paper this morning was pretty unsophisticated: Man, that thing is small! But seriously, it is--the sixth of the Journal's six columns just dropped right off.

You can read all about the other changes here; unfortunately, the "Reader's Guide" for the new Journal only seems to be available in PDF. Here's a preview: managing editor Paul Steiger promises easier-to-follow jumps from the front page, fewer jumps inside, more letters, more coverage of other media (in the new "Informed Reader" section), and a new feature on A2 called "Today's Agenda," along with a bunch of other stuff.

My experience with newspaper redesigns is that they're incredibly jarring at first; then, after a week or two, it's impossible to remember what the paper in question used to look like. That said, any die-hard Journal readers care to weigh in on the new look?

Oh yeah, one more thing--while all Journal content is free today, presumably in honor of the redesign, it doesn't look like there's any plan to make that a habit.