Globe Reaches Out

The Globe unveiled a new Page 1 design element today. It’s a web-influenced sidebar, running down the left-hand side of the paper, teasing nine stories from today’s edition, as well as a quote-of-note. Under Marty Baron, the Globe’s been regularly tweaking the front page, adding more colorful teasers at the top and punching up the lead photo.

This is a welcome continuation of that approach (though the quote should probably go above the fold), more evidence that the broadsheet is shifting away from its old, gray, inscrutable face, and toward something that more aggressively seeks out eyeballs.

Plus, using this excerpt from right-wing columnist Jeff Jacoby for the quote box is pretty ballsy and provocative: “Though outrage over ‘racism’ is ever-fashionable, African-Americans have long had far less to fear from the violence of racist whites than from the mayhem of the black underclass.”

The Jacoby piece it references is also well worth reading.