The New 'Observer': Did It Change Its Hair?
Oh, how our mouths were watering after reading Gabe Sherman's dispatch on the Observer's Media Mob blog yesterday afternoon, and not just because its headline alluded to smoked fish. Starting with today's issue, Sherman reported, the Observer would look different. A smaller trim size! (Like The Washington Post!) Five columns instead of six on the front page! A brand-new frontpage design! It is all being done, as it will soon be done at The Wall Street Journal, to save some money on paper, of course. But, still, "it gave us a face-lift," editor Peter Kaplan lemons-to-lemonaded, "that we needed." A face-lifted Upper East Side-bred beauty? This we'd have to see. And so we found ourselves out of the house uncharacteristically early today, purchasing an Observer at the corner newsstand. (Couldn't begin to tell you the last time we did that.) We gave it a good look. And we reached a verdict: The new Observer looks just like... the old Observer.
Which, come to think of it, makes it an excellent face-lift.
