The Daily Mountain Eagle in Jasper, Alabama, introduced a new look Jan. 1 on its front page, with the most noticeable change being to its nameplate. The change is the first to the DME nameplate in 20 years.
“It was time for a fresh look,” Publisher James Phillips said. “We have talked about redesigning our newspaper for a couple of years now, and starting the new year off with a new front page seemed like perfect timing.”
Since 2000, the Daily Mountain Eagle nameplate has featured a bright, blue sky as its background. In an effort to give its design a cleaner look, the blue background has been removed, but the iconic vision of an eagle flying through the DME name remains. The nameplate also features a script “Since 1872” to remind readers of the history of the newspaper. The phrase “The newspaper that cares about Walker County” was found for many years on the newspaper’s nameplate, but was removed in the early 1990s. That phrase has now returned to the DME’s front page.
“While we want to have a more modern look to our front page, we cannot forget the rich history that our newspaper has in our area,” Phillips said. “We are extremely proud to have served Walker County for nearly 150 years. No one documents the history of our county and its people like we do. That has been true since 1872, and it will remain true for another 150 years. We are proud to say that we are ‘the newspaper that cares about Walker County.’”
Other slight changes to the front page include new headline fonts and an increased leading on the body copy to make the text a little easier to read.
More changes to the look of the paper will be coming, Phillips said.
