So Now Do We Just Call It "The T?"

By Karl Klockars in News on Aug 27, 2008 3:41PM

Editor and Publisher got a sneak peek at what could become the new Chicago Tribune - and it ain't pretty. The news that Red Eye founding editor Jane Hirt would be promoted to managing editor worried a lot of people, and now it appears that the Red-Eye-Ification of the Tribune goes much further than just personnel changes.

The design has been completely redone, but the main change would be the name. Since 1847, "Chicago Tribune" has been good enough for most of us, but if the changes are implemented, we'd be looking at just the more-casual "trib" above the fold, with the old Tribune logo hidden amongst the lower-case lettering. E&P reports that the days of the current Trib could be extremely numbered; the Zellots are looking to make the changes before the end of September. But all is not lost:

"I would caution you against accepting anything you have as anything other than a work in progress," said Tribune Co. Senior Vice President/Corporate Relations Gary Weitman. When asked if the prototype was among those still being considered, he said: "We are just not talking about it until it is debuted."

Maybe Mariotti is right (words we thought we'd never type) and maybe the papers are on their last legs. Regardless, this redesign looks to us like the newspaper equivalent of Mountain Dew advertising. New! Extreme! Hip! In-Your-Face! High Five! Ooooooooh Yeah! Yuck.