BBC World News Changes Look

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BBC spends £550k on news revamp

Katie Allen

guardian.co.uk, Monday April 14 2008 Article history

BBC News: corporation wants to unify its news offering. Photograph: BBC

BBC News is hoping a £550,000 revamp of its image to include a new red globe symbol will help bring together the various parts of its sprawling operations from its international news channel to its bulletins in the nations and English regions.

The corporation will unveil the new logo, a newer version of the trademark BBC News globe symbol, on its news shows on Monday, April 21. It has already been rolling out the design on its news websites.

As more news websites, news aggregators like Google News and TV channels emerge, the BBC, like its mainstream media rivals, is keen to raise the profile of its brand to stay at the forefront of viewers' minds when they are searching for news stories.

The BBC also wants to unify its news offerings under one name and design scheme. The branding gives different colours to different news programmes such as Reporting Scotland and Wales Today, but they share the same ring-like pattern that surrounds the main globe logo.

"We are simplifying the branding structure. The marketplace is getting more and more cluttered and it was important to harness the various parts of BBC News," said a BBC spokesman.

Next Monday's rebranding will also mean the rolling news channel, BBC News 24, will be renamed BBC News, in an effort to make it more central to the BBC News family of outlets across radio, web, terrestrial and digital TV.

The BBC's domestic news channel has been branded News 24 since it launched in November 1997.

News 24 initially attracted criticism for being inferior to the BBC's established TV news bulletins.

But it has improved in the past few years, winning the Royal Television Society news channel of the year award in 2006 - and breaking arch-rival Sky News' domination of the category.

The BBC's international news channel BBC World will also be brought under the new uniform brand and renamed BBC World News.

Sources at the corporation said almost two years ago that it was looking to rebrand at least all its domestic news outlets under the BBC News name.

The corporation commissioned brand specialists Lambie Nairn, with whom it has worked for years on the overall BBC image and BBC News, to work on the current rebrand.

Part of the WPP empire of marketing companies, the Lambie Nairn agency has worked with several TV channels, creating the BBC1 balloon, the BBC Three blobs, the original Channel 4 logo and the History Channel's brand.

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