After weeks of promos telling us to “get ready”, the new totally ripped apart re-designed Tribune launched today.

Hmm…same day that the market plunges 700+ points. Interesting coincidence.

As someone who still really enjoys reading newspapers, here’s my take on the “new” Trib:

• there are a whole lotta ads…big ones. They must be giving super duper rate breaks to suddenly get all these advertisers in there!
• it’s not really like Red Eye. It’s easier to find what you’re looking for in Red Eye.
• It’s not really like USA Today. USA Today is a national newspaper designed for quick reads. The Trib is/was a local metro paper which now carries a lot of bylines from writers at other papers across the country.
• Seth Godin was right about the death of newspapers…only it’s happening sooner than he predicted.
• I can now get through all four of my morning papers much quicker, since there’s not much to read in this one.

I’ll miss the storytelling that makes a wonderful read. But hopefully, the Times and WSJ won’t decide to reinvent themselves any time soon.