Redesign kicks off 30th anniversary

By Katherine E. Hill

It’s been nearly 30 years since The Weekly published its first issue under the moniker “North Tahoe Week.”

Since then, The Weekly has been published under five different names and has transformed from a 12-page list of local information in that first issue into the premier resource for visitors and locals on the North and West shores, Truckee, Squaw Valley, Northstar and Truckee.

Today, The Weekly covers recreation, events, arts and entertainment, dining and shopping from Emerald Bay up the West Shore, around the North Shore and down the East Shore to Glenbrook, along with Truckee and the surrounding areas. The entertainment section covers the entire Lake Tahoe-Truckee region, as well as Reno-Sparks and Carson City. The magazine is published by a dedicated, but small staff of five (only two full-time), along with our columnists and freelance writers and photographers who all work to make The Weekly what it is today.

And, in case you’re wondering, the magazine has been published as: “North Tahoe Week,” “North Tahoe Truckee Week,” “North Tahoe Truckee This Week,” “North Tahoe Truckee This Week: The Weekly” and finally “The Weekly.”

To commemorate our 30th year of publication, Art Director Alyssa Ganong undertook the ambitious task of not only redesigning the magazine, but also reimagining how we present local information to our readers. The staff worked for the last four months looking at every aspect of the magazine from Lake Tahoe Facts to the features to our charts down to the puzzle page. There are lots of little changes that most of our readers might not notice, like removing the www. from all URL addresses, to larger changes, like moving the dining section to the back of the magazine. Here’s a look at what we did, and we hope you enjoy it:

Our logo
The magazine name was shortened to The Weekly in 2005 (although many still refer to us by any of our other names) and we wanted to keep our logo, but give it a facelift for 2012 for our 30th anniversary.

The idea behind the new logo was to “keep the integrity of The Weekly logo, but give it a little more pizzazz, to dress it up a little bit for the 30th anniversary,” Alyssa said of her design.

The mountains and the sky inside the logo are designed to reflect the Tahoe-Truckee area, and the colors will change to complement the cover photo in every edition.

Alyssa added that everyone on the staff had ideas about what the new logo should represent, and that her goal was to fuse all of those ideas together. The new logo also works with the new style on the inside of the magazine, she noted.

About Lake Tahoe
Two of our most prominent features that appear in every issue of The Weekly are Lake Tahoe Facts and Sightseeing. For our new design, we placed them on facing pages at the front of the magazine, where they will appear in color in every issue. We’re now using a wonderful satellite image of Lake Tahoe courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey as our map, and with some advice from Heather Segale with the Tahoe Environmental Research Center we’ve redesigned our Sightseeing page. Now, the information is presented by what the attraction or museum is, rather than by location. We think this will help our readers, especially visitors, find points of interest that they will want to visit during their trip.

Out & About
The next section of the magazine is our Out & About section, which includes all of our recreation information from features to our events calendar, to ski charts and listings about local activities from ice skating to rock climbing.

Arts & Entertainment
The Arts leads off our new Arts & Entertainment section. The Arts includes a listing of current exhibits, showings, and art classes and events in the Tahoe-Truckee area, as well as Reno. You’ll also find a listing of local galleries in every edition, and a calendar of art-related events.

Our puzzles pages have grown to two pages, with some new features like the Scramblers, as well as some additional kids’ activities. The Horoscopes will be in this section, as well.

For entertainment around the entire region from live music to theater productions, you’ll find it all in the Spotlight feature, In the Groove with our picks of some the top events, and The Scene with a day-by-day review of local entertainment.

Local Flavor
We’ve moved our dining section, now named Local Flavor, to the back of the magazine so that we can feature all of the fantastic local dining in full color in every edition.

The section leads off with the Restaurant Directory, with a listing of local eateries from wine bars and ice cream parlors to cafes and one-of-kind dining experiences. We’ve already expanded our listings and we’ll continue to add local eateries to the directory in the coming weeks.

Popular features will continue to be published in every edition, including Tasty Tidbits, with the latest dining deals and news; Tastes, highlighting local eateries, locally produced food and events; Wine Time, with Barbara Keck’s picks for wines from local restaurants to Sierra vineyards; and Stir It Up, featuring a recipe from resident Chef David “Smitty” Smith.

We hope you enjoy the new look for The Weekly, and thanks for making the first 30 years a wonderful journey.

Join us for an Opening Reception for an exhibit of 30 Years of Weekly Covers at the North Tahoe Arts Center in Tahoe City on Jan. 13 from 5 to 7 p.m. (the exhibit will be on display until Feb. 27.) We’ll be publishing a special 30th Anniversary Edition on Feb. 9, so if you have any stories or memories you’d like to share, send them to us by Jan. 30. And, be sure to join us for our Birthday Bash on Feb. 11 from 5 to 8 p.m. at Gar Wood’s in Carnelian Bay. For information, e-mail editor@tahoethisweek.com.