Guardianing

Journalism Something remarkable happened today, something which hasn't happened in probably months, even years. I bought The Guardian on a Tuesday. Traditionally I've skipped today and Wednesday to give myself a reading gap were I can catch up on whatever novel I'm trying to plough through or a magazine. But I'd enjoyed myself so much yesterday, I wanted to read it again today to see if they could continue the perfection. I'm pleased to see that they have and I'll probably end up back with it tomorrow.

The new size has brought a new philosophy. The news section in particular feels punchier. There is certainly detectably more analysis, a definite move away from simply offering the news to describing the implications. It understands that many of us already have a comprehension of what's happening in the world from radio or television; the paper is trying to find out why it's happening. The short leader paragraphs for each section which appear at the bottom of the front page cleverly act as adverts for the internal content. I found myself reading a finance story I would almost certainly have skipped over before. In this new Egyptian font, everything looks fresher

In parts, it plays like a printed weblog, Boing Boing, Slashdot and Metafilter rolled into one, presenting the whole story instead of a link. G2 in particular is a directory of wonderful things: there is a new section all about ethical living which randomly includes an explanation of the ingredients section from a bottle of Diet Coke; at the centre of the main paper is a two page full colour spead, EyeWitness which highlights some extraordinary photograph or subject -- yesterday that meant the riot in Belfast and today the new fourth grace still in the workshop in Italy; Morse author Colin Dexter has a new column 'How To Solve Crosswords...' so we might finally be able to look at that grid and mess of words and actually have some idea what it all means.

Granted, parts of the paper feel slightly design heavy, especially in the use of cutout head and shoulder shots of the writer or subject to illustrate stories. There are some columns such as Pass Notes, Smallweed and Country Diary which I might not have always read but were part of the furniture and the gap is felt. Thankfully Doonesbury is back next week after enough people complained. But overall this is a job well done. Congratulations Alan.