THE NEW LIFE & TIMES

If you are a reader of the New Straits Times, you may have seen the changes that we have made to the special interest sections that we called the Life & Times effective last Sunday. If you’re not (a reader), why don’t you give us a try; well … the SIS, if not the main paper.

From August 2 onwards, the Life & Times takes on a new life. 

While each pull out section continues to maintain its respective themes, it now has its own titles. 

Correct me if I am wrong but I think this is the first time that we've made such drastic changes to the Life & Times. 

Before this, we only had separate titles for the Sunday edition. 

Once upon a time, we named it Nuance and then changed it to People. I don't quite remember when we revert to using Life & Times on a Sunday. 

So, the Sunday's Life & Times is now Plush, BOTs (Monday), Heal (Tuesday), Flair (Wednesday), JOM! (Thursday), Groove (Friday) and Pulse (Saturday). 

We also decided to make the Sunday edition a little bit premium that the others.

Well,these changes are part of a bigger grand scheme of things that my Life & Times editors and I have put together.

As you know, changes are not done overnight. A lot of planning goes into it. 

When I took over the post five months after its editor left, I was told to do an audit of the SIS. I didn't know where to start actually. 

I swear that I haven’t been reading Life & Times all that much. My main read before had been the main paper and Business Times. I had handled those sections before.

Well, I did an eighteen-month stint as the coordinating editor of Nuance (the then Sunday pullout of the New Sunday Times). That was very much like the Life & Times. Nuance would have turned into a glossy magazine if it was given time to develop but the then management had a different idea about it.

Anyway, I asked the boss' secretary to find me the week's edition of the Life & Times and started cracking on how to best to approach the task. 

I know the editors and the reporters worked very hard to get the issues published despite being short staffed.

In my first meeting with them, I asked if they would agree to changes to their respective sections. "Can we?” one asked.

They wanted to make the changes but didn’t quite know how to go about it. And one section cannot do it alone. It has to be done together with the other sections.

So, we got our act together and planned for a total change of the SIS. 

We kept it as our little secret at first; just between the five editors of the seven SIS (while three editors are handling a section each, two others have their hands full with two sections each) and I. 

I must say our bosses were accommodating. They didn’t restrict us on the changes that we wanted to make, even approving the proposal for a name change.

The editors and I met again after they discussed the changes with their respective writers. 

When I presented the bosses with the first mock-up of the front pages, they were very impressed with the work we had done. I don’t think they expected it to be such. And we got the go-ahead for the design team to work on a full set of mock-ups for them.

The designers tweaked a little on the front page layout and worked towards putting together a mock-up of the inside pages. 

At the same time, the bosses asked the other sections - New Sunday Times, Learning Curve, news, sports and Business Times - to make the necessary changes as well.

One designer told me that they went home at 5am every day on the final week before August 2 to make sure that all the pages were ready to go for print. 

Now I know why the head of the design team wrote, “Sekarang boleh tidur” after the August 2 edition was put to bed.

While we maintained some of the popular columns that you have been following, we have and will be introducing new ones especially those that will engage the readers. 

You will find that besides the daily entertainment pages, we will also add Food pages on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Oh, on top of that, my team was also tasked to publish a one-off magazine for August 2 as a gift to reader in conjunction with the newspaper's anniversary.

The advertising and sales department had come up with the idea of a magazine in our of our meetings to discuss ideas for the anniversary.  

It was a challenge to us since we had to also work on the changes to Life & Times at the same time.

Furthermore, the magazine had to be advertising-driven.

And, we had to work throughout the Raya holidays to get it done.

I held separate editorial meetings with my editors to put together a magazine that balances between history and luxury. 

I got the Group Editor to write a note for our readers in the magazine. 

I simply lost track of the date, not the day (I tracked the days through the SIS), with these two major projects. On the day I was given the magazine, I told my colleague, "Eh, cepatnya. Bukan dia janji 27 haribulan ke?" He looked at me and said, "Today is the 27th." 

Alhamdulillah, the feedback that we got for both the magazine and changes to the Life & Times were positive. In fact, we received messages and emails asking us why a one-off magazine instead of weekly one. 

The answer to that question is quite obvious. We would not be able to produce such a magazine if we do not have advertising support. Also, I would probably need a separate team altogether to handle such a task.

I must tell you that I have the best team, both editorial and design, working with me. Without them, these changes will not be possible.

And the changes that we are making will not stop here. We will continue to make the necessary changes for both print and online. There are a few more exciting projects that are in the pipeline. Watch this space for updates.