Bringing a 172 year old tradition into the modern age

Client

Agribriefing

Brief

Transition Farmers Guardian, Agribriefing’s flagship title, from a 172-year-old tabloid newspaper into a news magazine format.

Approach

Farmers Guardian operates in a conservative market. Reading habits move very slowly over generations and any product change has to be handled with care. Over several months I worked closely with the editors, designers, picture desk and external research house. I made new templates for all the pages, and trained the journalists to write in a more direct manner.

Outcomes

After such a big move in retail display, Farmers Guardian sales remained rock solid, putting real pressures on Farmers weekly, their newsstand rival. 2017 research shows average read time up from 58 to 70 mins with 74%  preferring the new format. But more importantly, ad revenue is up 12%, making this a hugely profitable year.

CEO Neil Thackray said: ‘Andy sat with the teams as they made up the first issues; challenging them not only on design but on picture choices, style and headline writing. He lived the project and our team loved working with him and learned a lot from the process. The feedback to our new look has been overwhelmingly positive’

Bringing a 172 year old tradition into the modern age
The new front cover design
Bringing a 172 year old tradition into the modern age
Readers tweeting the relaunch Brexit cover
Before and after. The paper size was reduced by 25%, but with the careful management of typography and flatplan, no content was lost. The title was no longer with other newspapers, but up on the racks. This meant the top banner was now a key selling spot.
Bringing a 172 year old tradition into the modern age
Farmers Guardian has an immense amount of data to tabulate. These pages are from the new, smaller size, where all the data was accommodated without loss of readability
Bringing a 172 year old tradition into the modern age
The editorial team in Preston with the first relaunched issue
Bringing a 172 year old tradition into the modern age
Here is the new design racked against Farmers Weekly in relaunch week. Guess who won this one!
Bringing a 172 year old tradition into the modern age
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