Dear Reader:
When the person I had charged with redesigning The Chronicle pulled out a piece of notebook paper and eight Crayola markers several months ago, I got a little worried.
Yes, he appears to be designing pages, but he's doing it with Wild Strawberry, Periwinkle and Jungle Green, I thought back in March.
I have since learned that when Whitney Robinson, The Chronicle's first ever design editor, pulls out a marker and a piece of paper, you pay attention.
Whitney's colorful scribblings - sometimes inscrutable, usually eye-opening - have evolved into the annual send-home issue that you hold in your hands today.
With the help of photography editor Anthony Cross, sports editor Mike Corey, Recess editors Dean Chapman and David Walters and TowerView editor Tyler Rosen, along with The Chronicle's top news editors, managing editor Jane Hetherington and myself, Whitney has completely transformed the look and feel of The Chronicle and its three magazines. Indeed, not one of the 124 editorial pages of this issue has gone untouched.
The result is a clean, bold and reader-friendly look, complete with new fonts, new flags and new layouts. Our photos and graphics are looking better than ever, and our headlines and stories are now jumping off the page.
If it sounds like I'm a father gushing over his child's report card, it's partly because none of us have slept in two weeks, but mostly because the redesign is everything I hoped for and more.
Our redesign will not stop short at the visual look of the paper or its magazines, however. We hope that over the next year a new style of story will emerge in The Chronicle. Our usual comprehensive coverage of the latest breaking and continuing news at the University, in the Health System and in Durham will of course continue. But we will be augmenting these articles with more personalized, slice-of-life and investigative stories, where the people - not the policies - of the Duke community receive special attention.
The send-home issue is, by necessity, one bereft of such stories because so much happens on the hard news front when the school year endsâ??and The Chronicle stops daily publication, we like to think. However, University editors Andrew Collins and Cindy Yee and Health and Science editors Malavika Prabhu and Liana Wyler have put together an exciting and compelling array of articles meant to catch you up on all the latest and get you ready for the school year (34 days and counting, by the way).
With that said, welcome to the 99th volume of The Chronicle. Crayola-influenced or not, we hope you like our style.
Alex Garinger
Editor, 99th Volume
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