Welcome to the new SmartPlanet

Welcome to the new SmartPlanet. Our beautifully redesigned site features a crisp, new look that befits our editorial mission: to deliver the most engaging and provocative news in global business innovation.

Yes folks, we've overhauled everything -- from the logo to the aesthetic to the navigation of the site. Gone are the leaf and grass, and in their place is an octopus, a symbol of intelligence, curiosity and playfulness. Instead of jam-packed pages, you’ve got white spaces and grand photos that allow us to better showcase not only our ideas, but those of our subjects. Finally, instead of long and short stories that are mixed together, you get the latest news on one side, and deeper dives on the other, in our latest issue. The connective tissue here is cutting-edge innovation across a broad range of topics ranging from architecture to cities to technology to transportation. 

In the last couple months, we’ve been slyly publishing a weekly magazine alongside our news updates, and now you’ll see that issue more prominently. This magazine of long features, which appears every weekend, allows us the time to talk to today’s trailblazers, creatives and lightning rods, and to delve into the latest ideas that inspire us, draw our skepticism or pique our curiosity.

We’ll continue to keep you up-to-date throughout the week with news bursts from the Bulletin, which you’ll find behind the "Read the Latest" tab on the top left. Sponsored content from IBM will be integrated into the new SmartPlanet, designed to add to our conversations.

Newsletters have also been revamped. Our daily now serves as a roundup of our top Bulletin stories while the weekly version covers the deep magazine features.

Here's a look at a few notable highlights that are spelled out more in our photo tour of the new features on the site (click through to see the gallery):

• The entire site has been packaged into a news magazine format with a new presentation.
• We are collating all of our wide-ranging content into regular issues, complete with cover story and table of contents.
• In the upper right of any of our new pages, you’ll find a convenient drop down labeled “Inside this Issue” with full access to the current magazine.
• While our main goal was to create a site that would better serve our longer, more comprehensive features, we still offer quick news bites for the casual reader or frequent flyer.
• We’ve also stripped down our search results pages into an easy grid layout to give you more of the SmartPlanet content you’re looking for.
• We’ve optimized our text to display perfectly on any device, including tablets and smartphones. No mobile apps required.

One goal of this redesign and rebranding effort is to also be more mobile-friendly. Simply put, we hope to be on your weekend reading list as you're lying on the couch with your tablet.

Reader input has informed a lot of what we've done with the site. We hope you'll enjoy it.

Last but not least, here's a look at the key players behind the new SmartPlanet:

• Aly Windsor, our News Editor and newsletter guru.
• Laura Shin, Features Editor, and editor of Global Observer and Pure Genius.
• Heather Clancy, Section Editor for The Report, The Take and The Word.
• Adrienne Lewin, Section Editor for The Big Story and Business Brains.

Drop us a line to let us know your thoughts. Cheers and thanks for reading.

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com