The Tizer: A modest dress, neat but not gaudy

Managing director Joanna Parlby with chairman and

editor-in-chief Roger Parlby examine the Advertiser's new-look

Spent some of the summer working with colleague Mike Brough on a new-look for the Newark Advertiser (the Tizer) to go with its new publication day. The changes were rolled out this month when the weekly changed publication day from Friday to Thursday to give ads a longer shelf life. The changes also had an impact on sales, early figures showing an 11 per cent week-on-week increase. Very rewarding. The redesign was a delicate operation. The veteran chairman and editor-in-chief Roger Parlby has deep knowledge of design and typography principles and had a clear view of the evolutionary approach the Advertiser needed. The changes we introduced had to be subtle. The masthead retains its Ultra Bodoni typeface, but is enlarged with a shadow while splash heading caps are dropped in favour of lower case Century Bold. Sport takes over the back page, feature pages follow a magazine format and news pages now have a modular treatment with smaller lower-case headings. It is always great to work with family-run independent newspapers where those who are empowered to make the decisions also have a love for the paper and its history. The Advertiser was no exception. The paper's editorial, in the relaunch edition, summed up the changes nicely: A refreshed Advertiser strives to please relying on the solid foundation of years long gone. Samuel Wesley said it all way back in 1700 when he wrote: 'Style is the dress of thought, a modest dress neat but not gaudy will true critics please.' Editor Chris Prime and MD Joanna Parlby were also very happy with the changes. Joanna wrote: “I am delighted with your work on our paper. The changes are subtle but make all the difference to the paper’s evolution. A fresh approach to page layout and design brings the product up-to-date and makes its read a better experience all round.” It was our pleasure - working with dedicated and genuinely nice people with real journalistic values whose motivation is to keep both readers and advertisers happy. The sort of work we would happily do every day.