Dear Reader,

If you’re someone who reads this column exclusively online, or via a newsletter that comes to your email inbox, then my topic today will be news to you.

If you’re among the legions of dedicated print readers in our eight newspaper towns across Michigan, it may be old news.

But here’s the story: Even in this fast-paced era of digital news and social media, the print newspaper not only has a place in our mix of products, we remain committed to improving it for those who enjoy that reading experience.

Over the past several months, we’ve made refinements to our eight newspapers with a couple of goals in mind: Optimize the presentation of our local news in each community, as well as featuring MLive’s best stories of statewide interest; making the reading experience easier and more visually attractive.

That has meant:

Redesigning our front page to give more prominence to the biggest local story of the day, while still featuring an interesting story for readers across the entire state.
Reorganizing our “A Section” and sports section so that they flow from front to back with local stories of interest, without being interrupted by national stories or syndicated material.
Tweaking our page templates so there are clearer headlines, larger local photographs, and bolder page labels to aid reader navigation.

“All of these changes are about user experience,” said Timothy Frank, senior director of print innovation for Advance Local, the parent company for MLive. “A cleanly executed publication is easier to read, and pairing that effort with engaging headlines and art will hopefully make the paper more welcoming to read.”

As I noted at the outset, print readers likely began noticing the changes this summer. The initial change was to our front page nameplates, where we added large, bold acronyms for each publication above the newspaper title from Monday to Saturday. (“The font is Obsidian,” Frank said. “As far as I know, there is nothing else like it.”)

Then, over the past month, we have instituted the other changes throughout the news and sports sections in all eight newspapers.

You can access our full news, sports and feature output – as well as videos and podcasts – on MLive.com and through our social media accounts 24 hours per day. That said, there’s something unique about the print reading experience that continues to make it preferred by many of our most avid readers.

“Compared to staring at your phone, reading the Sunday paper with your morning coffee should be a luxurious experience,” Frank said. “To add to that experience, we have a team of talented people who create beautifully designed and illustrated special pages and sections that can only be experienced in print.”

That is a marked contrast to the internet and social media, which tend to be “rivers” that flow by readers who are busy living their lives. While your local newspaper may not capture everything MLive produces in a day, it provides a service by having its editors thoughtfully select and present the best stories for you to read when you have the time.

“There is more to a fulfilled life than speed. Otherwise, there would only be fast-food restaurants,” said Frank.

We can’t turn back the hands of time to a simpler era where we all got our news once per day from a newspaper that an entire community consumed. But we haven’t forgotten the enjoyment many get from opening the printed page, leaning back and getting informed.

We’ll keep working to make that experience the best it can be.

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John Hiner is the vice president of content for MLive Media Group. If you have questions you’d like him to answer, or topics to explore, share your thoughts at editor@mlive.com.