Paul Johnson (left) and Ed Pilkington, home news editor, discuss the day's stories in the newsroom
Well, we're almost at the end of the first week and Paul Johnson, Deputy Editor (news) says he hasn't had a hot meal since last Saturday.
"It's been hard work but it's been really good," he says. "There's been a real engagement, a sense of fun and achievement. We're getting stories followed up in lots of places - the Standard, Mail, Independent, Times and the BBC. So as well as looking sumptuous, the new Guardian had got grip in terms of news."
But of course there's no time to rest. The staff now has to produce the Saturday edition and as Paul points out, it will be a paper the like of which the Guardian has never seen. There will be 22 news pages and the paper will be completely different at the back, designed and constructed in a completely different way to any other paper.
"We've not produced this before, Saturday will be the first time," says Paul, who promises lots of good news stories in Saturday's paper including one potential exclusive given to us by someone who was not previously a regular reader. But having seen the new Guardian this person felt we could be trusted. "This is the knock-on effect," says Paul.
While the news section of the paper will be similar to the Monday to Friday editions, Saturday's paper will contain many new features including a new family section and a redesigned and enhanced Weekend magazine with more coverage of food, fashion and interiors.
All the features sections, including Travel, Review and a new work section, are slightly different in text typesize, with colour used in a stronger way and are influenced by magazine design. It's all because, as Mark Porter says, Saturdays are the new Sundays, with papers getting bigger and being read in a different way. "We have readers on Saturdays who don't read us Monday to Friday, so there's a different relationship with the readers."
The new family section, which will be jointly edited by Becky Gardiner and Sally Weale in a job share, looks "gorgeous", they think. The section will be about more than parenting, moving into the wider family relationship and looking at the involvement of all members of the family. The section will also be interactive, with the editors hoping for lots of imput from readers.
