New logo: Billboard

The Billboard brand is known around the world for its many music-related charts that are seen as the ultimate measure of success in the music business. The number of people who read the actual magazine behind the brand is probably a fraction of that, but this week it is launching a new look, created by Michael Bierut of Pentagram in New York, working with Billboard's own designers.

Since the issue of July 16, 1966, Billboard's masthead has featured a Bauhaus-inspired wordmark where four of the counters have been filled with different colors. It was given a small update in 1984 and has since remained unchanged.

It is now replaced by a thicker all lower-case wordmark that exploits the geometric nature of the name. On magazine covers, it is now presented in one color without filled counters, while the colored dots will remain in marketing and for digital platforms.

The entire magazine has been redesigned to be more relevant in today's music industry. This includes the charts, which are now easier to read.
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New logo: USA Today

USA Today is a national newspaper in the United States, and one of the most widely circulated newspapers in the country. Launched in September 1982, it soon established a reputation for providing easily digestible news summaries and "flashy" color printing at a time when newspapers were still mostly black and white. Yesterday, September 13, it unveiled a new look and a complete redesign of the newspaper ahead of its 30th anniversary.

USA Today's blue globe logo (also known as a nameplate, flag or masthead when we are talking about newspapers) has been with the newspaper since it first started. It now gets replaced a contemporary minimalist, some would say "hipster", design with a large circle. When used in the nameplate, the logo will include the issue's date. The circle changes color depending on the section and can include different icons and infographics.
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New logo: Gannett

Gannett - which is pronounced with emphasis on the last syllable, like cadet - is a big media conglomerates in the United States. It owns over 90 newspapers, most notably USA Today, and about two dozen TV stations.

On Monday, March 7, 2011, the company is launching a new look. The logo had already been published by some news outlets on March 4. The new logo simply consists of the name written in Verlag typeface, sometimes with the slogan "It's all within reach" underneath. It was created by an advertising firm called The Farm.

The previous logo contained a globe which was partly covered by a G. It has been in use for decades; I haven't been able to pinpoint when in was introduced, but it was probably born in the 1970s. Update: According to Gannett, the old logo was commissioned from Mutsuo Yasumura & Associates after the 1978 merger with Combined Communications. It was first used on the 1979 annual report, and came with the slogan "A World of Different Voices Where Freedom Speaks".

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