Why BW's redesign arrived in elephant time

Posted by: Stephen Baker on October 13

Rex Hammock puzzles over a New York Times article on BW’s redesign.

Second head-scratcher from the NY Times article is this snip:

“The redesign comes from 18 months of planning, including a study of reader preferences. The main conclusions were that people wanted a format that was easier to navigate, as well as information culled from a variety of sources.”

18 months? I could have told them that in 18 seconds. (Sidenote: The gestation period of an elephant is 22 months.)

To explain: The redesign comes about two and a half years after Steve Adler took over the magazine. He had come from the Wall Street Journal. While I’m sure he quickly saw many things he wanted to change, he had to learn about BW and our industry, build his team and put together a strategy for the magazine, the Website, and the other BW channels. It’s been a big and complicated job, one involving cultural change. I’m not surprised that this redesign arrived in elephant time. But we have to run a lot faster than elephants if we’re going to make it work.