Yes, that is a redesign, all right

Wilson newspaper readers now have their choice of two morning papers. The Wilson Times, known for 107 years as The Wilson Daily Times, switched today to a.m. delivery and touted a garishly colorful new design that management says readers will like better. We'll see.

Today's Wilson Times front page is dominated by four headlines with accompanying photos that "tease" articles that run inside the paper. The biggest headlines on the front page are not for front-page stories. They're for 3A stories. The largest photo on the front page accompanies a story on 2A. Get your hand exercise flipping back and forth between the article and the photo that should accompany it.

The blue and the orange colors (is this the Clemson football team?) leap out of the news box at readers. Much more subtle is the paper's switch to "ragged right" type instead of the traditional justified type, in which each line of type ends at the same point. This is not revolutionary. I attended a seminar in 1981 in which the Biloxi, Miss., paper touted its switch to ragged right. I think Biloxi's ragged-right type lasted only a short while.

The Times' layoff-depleted staff put extra effort into today's edition, which has an unusually high local story count. Don't expect it every day. That front-page headline about Craven County is actually locally written, though the headline writer ignored the local angle (Flu medicines arrive in Wilson) and went for the statewide angle (though no credit is given to Associated Press or wherever the comment originated).

You'd think that the decision by local physicians not to provide free physicals for public school athletes would have warranted mention on the front page, but it was relegated to 3A. This could have a huge impact on high school sports and many hundreds of local families.

World and state briefs have been repackaged, but the packaging leaves no space for important state or national news that requires more than a brief. And three-line headlines on many of the briefs detract from the package's look. As for the roundup of small, tightly cropped AP photos from around the world? Who needs them? The space could be used to serve readers' information needs better.

The Sports front gives a hint of what's in store: Ads climbing to the top of the section fronts. Until relatively recently, no self-respecting newspaper would have allowed ads on the front page. Now everybody, even the New York Times, is doing it. The initial, fairly unobtrusive ads at the bottom of the page have given way to ads climbing the page. In the name of serving the advertiser (and collecting a premium payment for placement), newspapers are shortchanging their readers' news space.

My vote for the most intriguing aspect of the Times' redesign: The folio lines (the small type at the top of the page that gives the date, page number and name of the paper) make no mention of the paper's name or of its point of origin. Instead, it says "wilsontimes.com." In my 33 years in the newspaper business, I was always told that it was important to have the newspaper's name and hometown in the folio lines so that a clipping or tear sheet could be readily identified. Also, the only mention of the city and state from which the paper originates is in the small type on page 2A in what is known as the second-class mailing permit box. It includes the paper's street address, but it also refers to the paper as The Wilson Daily Times. The N.C. Secretary of State's Office reports that the corporate name of this company is still The Wilson Daily Times, despite what you might read on the front page.

By whatever name, the Wilson paper has cast its lot with a New York Post look and a printing schedule that competes directly with a much larger and more complete (but diminished) newspaper. Readers will decide whether it works.