The Guardian’s award-winning website (theguardian.com) and apps have been redesigned in line with The new Guardian tabloid print format, offering a new reader experience for its 150 million monthly unique browsers globally.
The redesign coincides with new versions of its print products in the UK, which sees the paper change from its unique Berliner format to the tabloid size. The move will save several million pounds in printing costs and forms a significant part of the plan towards securing GMG’s long-term future. Guardian Media Group continues to implement its three-year transformation plan with the target of GNM breaking even at operating level by April 2019.
A number of design innovations and improvements have been introduced including:
The digital redesign
- New Guardian masthead - a confident representation of its reputation for serious, trusted journalism as a quality global news brand
- An updated colour palette using bold, striking colours around the core sections of Guardian journalism: news, opinion, sport, arts and lifestyle
- A new font, called ‘Guardian Headline’, that is simple, confident and impactful. The new font has been created in collaboration with design agency Commercial Type, who created the original ‘Guardian Egyptian’; and
- The main text font remains the same — with marginal positive changes to size, line spacing and overall typesetting to improve readability.
Katharine Viner, editor-in-chief, Guardian News & Media, said:
“Since we announced our plans to change format seven months ago, it’s been an exhilarating period of creativity, imagination and focus, and I’m thrilled with the result: a new paper that feels bold, striking and beautiful, and still unmistakably The Guardian. It has also been a fantastic opportunity to redesign our website and apps. The new Guardian will be a space for big ideas, for debate, for clear thinking and new perspectives.
“Our move to tabloid format is a big step towards making The Guardian financially sustainable and ensuring we can continue to invest in agenda-setting journalism for generations to come.”
David Pemsel, CEO, Guardian Media Group, said:
“The change to tabloid format is an important milestone in our three-year transformation plan and will save several million pounds. The media sector remains challenging.
However, our reader revenues are growing well, and more people are reading us than ever before - we now reach over 150 million unique browsers each month and we have over 800,000 supporters.
“Our strategy to secure The Guardian’s future is on track. By April 2018 we will have halved our operating losses in just two years, reducing them from £57m to £25m per year, with the goal of breaking even in 2018/19.”
Alex Breuer, executive creative director, Guardian News & Media, said:
“The new design has readability at its heart, with a new headline font and a new colour palette as core elements. At the forefront is the bold new masthead, which represents The Guardian’s place and purpose in today’s turbulent news agenda.
“With a more flexible page layout in print and online and enhanced use of photographic journalism and graphics, our new design is simple, confident and stylish - providing readers with the best possible experience across all our platforms.”
Lenore Taylor, editor, Guardian Australia, said:
“Guardian Australia readers will notice a new look to our site with a new masthead and design. Our commitment to high quality independent journalism and to reporting important Australian stories remains the same.”
John Mulholland, editor, Guardian US, said:
“Readers in America will find a refreshed, modern look to theguardian.com. Our new digital identity will complement our rigorous and insightful journalism while continuing to focus on issues such as widening levels of inequality, the erosion of public lands, threats to the environment, rampant homelessness, racial divisions, gender inequality, the politics of Big Tech and, of course, the eventful Trump Presidency. Additionally we will continue to focus on the world of arts, digital culture, and lifestyle issues ranging from motherhood to gentrification, and other social issues affecting American women and men.”
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Notes to editors
For more information please contact:
Guardian Australia press office: katie.haffner@theguardian.com or +61 403 357 831.
Guardian US press office: deepal.patadia@theguardian.com or 917-900-4675
About Guardian News & Media
Guardian News & Media (GNM) publishes theguardian.com, one of the world’s leading English-language newspaper websites. Traffic from outside of the UK now represents around two-thirds of the Guardian’s total digital audience. In the UK, GNM publishes the Guardian newspaper six days a week, first published in 1821, and the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper, The Observer. The Guardian is renowned for its agenda-setting journalism including, most recently, the Panama Papers and the Paradise Papers investigations as well as the Pulitzer Prize and Emmy-winning NSA revelations.
