26 Jun How Content-driven Design Makes all the Difference – the Sunday Times Reinvention Case Study

Welcome to the new Sunday Times: ‘Smarter, sharper, more opinionated’

Today the Sunday Times embarks on an exciting new journey into the future. Our team and Innovation Media Consulting Group have been working for months to bring you a new, content-driven design that enhances your experience in diverse and innovative ways. The result is a better read and a fresh, modern look.

Media houses around the world are being forced to change and adapt their editorial strategies, revamp their look and feel and change their business models as the traditional one is under attack from the internet.

This is why your favourite Sunday newspaper, has also undergone a massive revamp – in print and digital.

The result is what you are holding in your hands, or seeing on your phone or desktop screen – a smarter, sharper, scandalous, delicious and more opinionated Sunday Times.

In today’s fast-paced digital world, the Sunday Times still provides the opportunity to quietly decompress and engage with current affairs, business, lifestyle and sport without feeling rushed. For our 3.7million readers, we remain a regular part of a weekend unwind and reboot ritual. Over the past year, we have been working with designers from the Innovation Media Group in London and a team of designers from the Tiso Blackstar Group, owner of the Sunday Times.The result is what you are holding in your hands, or seeing on your phone or desktop screen – a smarter, sharper, scandalous, delicious and more opinionated Sunday Times.

Since we started this project there has been a lot of talk in our newsroom about finding innovative ways to generate and produce excellent journalism. Why are we doing all of this? Quite simply, we value the place we have in your life. We understand the importance of complementing our award-winning journalism with an aesthetic driven by great design.

We are also finding innovative ways to bring that journalism to you.

Do not be surprised when, in the not so distant future, we inform you that you no longer have to walk to your nearest newspaper vendor as we will send your “newspaper” directly to your activity tracker.

With all those changes, our journalists and editors will still keep it real. It will remain the same newspaper that you have been buying and reading for the past 111 years.

Most importantly, it will still be the Sunday Times. Yes, it will be unique, but will remain powerful, fun, entertaining, empowering, influential and agenda-setting. You can still expect our authoritative and exclusive takes on breaking stories and in-depth pieces on popular issues, business, lifestyle and sport. We’re also revisiting the risqué nature of page three, which is being revived to be more personality driven with a nod to celebrity, fashion and pop-culture gossip.

And finally, to mark the special place that our newspaper holds in South African culture, we’ve extended our innovation to the creation of a new, exclusive font, which has been adopted throughout the paper. We have named it “Jozi”.

It reflects our commitment to this country, the principles of a free media in a constitutional democracy, and our ongoing pride as the paper for the people.

Enjoy it. Please write to me and tell me what you think of your newspaper