Barron's redesign critiqued

Following the lead of its sister publication, The Wall Street Journal, weekly business paper Barron’s has also undergone a redesign, and Sheldon Liber, a CEO of a small private investment company, critiqued the changes on bloggingstocks.com.

Liber wrote, “As one who liked it fine just as it was, I am on the look out for ‘refinements’ in their content affected by the physical and aesthetic change.

“Randall W. Forsyth did an able job in the lead article of January 15 edition but he is not Alan Abelson. Perhaps Mr. Abelson — who is well known for his long sentences, turning of wonderful phrases, expanding our vocabulary with etymological adventurism and sharp wit — did not appreciate being directed to reduce his pontification by some artificial constraint in the name of progress. In the January 22 issue he is back. But there seems to be some reduction in the length of the story. Perhaps, in his case, a little less froth is acceptable.

“The smaller typefaces of portions of text are not better in anyway, they are just smaller. Since the accumulation of wealth, and Barron’s subscribers tend toward those with more sophistication and poorer eyesight, this is not appealing in the least bit.

“Market Watch, a sampling of advisory opinions, was hit hard down from seven or eight newsletter submissions to three. That is a huge mistake! This was one of the better sections in Barron’s and afforded the reader some diversity of subject and editorial commentary. Put it back, please.”

Read more here. Read about the changes at Barron’s here.