Late last year the L.A. Times hired Amy Moynihan, who used to direct corporate branding for McDonald's. When you bring in a new VP for Brand Marketing, corporate culture pretty much demands a new campaign and fast. Hers landed today in the form of an edict to reprint all the paper's logos and stationery to mark this being the 125th anniversary of the newspaper that became the LAT. "Looking Back - Leading Forward" is the new slogan.

Effective immediately through December 31, 2006, all company communication (internal and external) should be updated with these new graphics....

This new unified brand identity will be popping up all over Southern California, on the sides of buildings (including our own!), wrapped on cars and trucks, plastered on billboards and seen at events.

Her memo to the brandees follows:

To: Times Employees
From: Amy Moynihan, Vice President, Brand Marketing

Subject: 125th Anniversary Logo

As part of The Times' 125th Anniversary, we are introducing a fresh new brand identity. One consistent look that will unify all advertisements, company communications, signage, collateral, promotional materials, media kits, etc. Anything branded Los Angeles Times must be branded with these new graphics. It's a bold new look that will update and unify all Times messages, enabling us to speak as one brand, with one consistent look.

We have developed a new Los Angeles Times Style Guide that has been posted on Times Link. Effective immediately through December 31, 2006, all company communication (internal and external) should be updated with these new graphics. To save a version to your PC, right click on the file name and choose "Save target as..." to save it on your hard drive. On a Mac, click on the file name to open a window that allows you to "save this file to disk."

[snip]

Thank you in advance for your cooperation and compliance. As John O'Loughlin reported a few weeks ago, this new unified brand identity will be popping up all over Southern California, on the sides of buildings (including our own!), wrapped on cars and trucks, plastered on billboards and seen at events. As we increase our visibility in the marketplace, it's more important than ever to ensure that we present ourselves as one brand, with one brand identity.

Thoughts or ideas? Please let me know!

AMY