I thought there'd be just the one terrible rebranding today! AdAge covers the rebrand of Gannett's flagship publication.

Old compared to new. "That's no moon..."

Three Elaborated Problems:

1) Their "masthead" version of their new "logo" is more like "headline" formatted "text". It gets the viewer immediately, completely lost in an impenetrable wall of text. At the very, very least, it simply blends rather than pop. Was that the goal? If so, success!

2) The new utilitarian-ization of their sections could use a strong icon-based do-over, if the plan is to make that succeed in strongly marking what section you're in at a given time. The "turquoise moon" and the typeface change make this look like an offshoot of the USA Network instead of a news publication.

3) This half-hearted rebranding is unfortunately indicative of the fact that their business model fundamentally does not understand digital delivery and is limply kicking and screaming to not adapt and evolve. This is why Gannett and other publishing monoliths have been on the decline for years.