ABC News relaunches on-air and online with blue hues and retro theme
The ABC has refreshed its look across ABC TV and the ABC News website this morning. The ABC News app also has a new icon, but not as many changes so far.
Starting at 6am with ABC News Breakfast, the new look on ABC TV and the ABC News channel takes a big step away from the stark black-and-white of old. Blue shades and a pairing serif and sans-serif typefaces are the most obvious changes, most notably in the ABC News channel ticker.
At 9am on the ABC News channel the first general bulletin was broadcast, opening with the throwback 'remastered' ABC TV News theme - remixed by sound designer David McDonald.
PAnalysis by Patricia KarvelasThis week, after a hiatus of nearly two decades, the old theme that played at the start of the 7pm news between 1986 and 2005 will once again herald the ABC TV bulletins — but it will have a fresh lick of paint.
Compared to similar public broadcasters, like BBC News, I feel like the ABC Serif font is a nice callback to newspaper typography and is a great way to vary the look and feel of different on-screen elements.
It feels less 2010-online-retro and more like a sophisticated, modern news font.
The old ABC News website via Archive.org
An ABC News website redesign introduces similar shades of colour and a more dynamic layout, shifting away from the previous vertical blog-like layout. There are also more specific choices for when and where an excerpt appears and when an article card will expand to show more details. In the example below, the Logies article card features a gallery of images, an excerpt, tags alongside the headline. In hero slots feature images also fade between one-another.
I think it's a pretty bold and consistent new approach, especially the simultaneous launch across two very different platforms - TV and online. And it bridges the gap between the glossy look and feel of a commercial broadcaster like Nine News, and the clean but sophisticated look of a New York Times or Sydney Morning Herald news website.
In comparison, a Nine News refresh earlier this year hasn't yet had much of an impact on 9News.com.au.
I also really like the general move towards more more hard-hitting articles being featured online, as opposed to the previous lifestyle, feature-story focused homepage.
As the new ABC chair Kim Williams told staff recently, “I think people have, in moments of public torment, crisis, division, challenges to leadership, a right to be able to access it from us reliably and immediately, and not to suddenly see a lifestyle story being No.1 or No.2 or No.3.”
You can read more about the new-look here on the ABC News website:
ABC NEWS, Australia’s most trusted news source, will launch a new design, features and functionality for the ABC NEWS website for all audiences next Monday 19 August as well as unveiling a new on-air look.
The news will also sound different thanks to the return of the much-loved ABC TV News Theme composed by Peter Wall and Tony Ansell, which was in use from 1986 to 2005. Audiences have never forgotten it, and now it’s back in an updated arrangement and remix.
The new theme will make its on-air debut at 9.00am AEST Monday on the ABC NEWS Channel and be heard on every state and territory 7PM bulletin from Monday night. Monday’s News Breakfast will feature a live performance of the theme played by the SA Primary Schools String Orchestra.
ABC News
