USA Today is revealing a major redesign in conjunction with the publication's 30th anniversary Thursday. The multi-platform makeover aims to reposition the paper as a news brand rather than a newspaper brand, says recently appointed president and publisher Larry Kramer.

It's a promising revamp. USA Today appears to have listened closely to readers and advertisers, identifying its core strengths and refashioning them for today's fast-paced, device-owning reader. "We want to be modern, to do what we used to do: Give readers information they can't get anywhere else," says Kramer.

All properties showcases a new, simpler logo: A single large circle replaces a horizontally-striped globe next to "USA TODAY, a Gannett Company" (see below).

The paper itself has more color, more pull quotes, more images — including photos, charts and illustrations of columnists, the latter of which is designed to give the paper a more "personalized" feel — anything that will help USA Today convey stories as efficiently as possible. If a story about corn futures can be told just as well in a single, colorful chart captioned by a quote from an analyst as it can in a 2,000-word story, USA Today will do it.

Other parts of the paper have been elongated and condensed. USA Today's state-by-state news section has been expanded from half a page to a full page after focus groups showed that it was one of readers' favorite sections. Stock listings in the paper have been condensed to show the biggest movers of the previous day, with a short explanation for their price fluctuations. Readers are invited to visit USAToday.com to see full listings and set up their own e-mail portfolio alerts.



The old versus new logo.

The paper is littered with incentives to tune in online for additional coverage. Readers are also encouraged to watch referenced videos on their smartphones by scanning QR codes printed in the paper. Letters to the editor have been made over to feature comments left by readers on Facebook, Twitter and USA Today's website. As such, USA Today's print and digital properties no longer feel like separate entities, but in conversation with each other.

USA Today's digital properties, including its website, mobile and tablet apps, and Facebook app have also been rebuilt. The new site is much cleaner, with fewer ads, more and bigger images, and tablet-optimized swiping capabilities. It was built using responsive design, so that it will scale across multiple screen sizes. The layout of all of USA Today's digital properties, whether web, app or Facebook-based, is remarkably consistent.

Perhaps the most impressive elements of the redesign are the ad units, which have been revamped so that they can be simutaneously and consistently delivered on all of USA's platforms. While standard display ads still appear in some parts of the site, there are also new interstitial ads that are interactive — much more like what you'd expect to find in a magazine's iPad app than a website.

"Instead of trying to get people to click rectangles to go to other sites, we're trying to build rich ad experiences on-site," Kramer explains.