Wisconsin State Journal Retools

Better?

The Wisconsin State Journal published a redesigned and narrower newspaper Monday with a themed features section intended to attract younger readers, and a front page setting for stories its editor says will be more “muscular” and have “sharper edges” to its enterprise reporting.

Ellen Foley, editor of the 87,000-circulation Madison daily, said “amazingly,” the reaction to the extensive redesign was generally positive. The biggest complaint revolves around the need, because of the narrower web width, to shave space from the syndicated Cryptoquote puzzle. Readers said there’s not enough space to write the decoded letters, she said.

“So it goes to show you: we journalists work so very hard on the dense work of reporting and watchdog writing and all that other fun stuff—and it’s the Cryptoquote you get all the phone calls on,” Foley said with a laugh.

The narrower 48-inch web width was necessitated by the Chicago Tribune’s decision to narrow its pages. The State Journal prints Tribune copies distributed in Wisconsin.