Tri-City Record debuts refreshed look
If the Tri-City Record looks a little different in your hands this week, you’re not imagining things.
This special mass-mailing edition marks the debut of a refreshed look for the Record, designed by owner and editor, Josh Coffin.
The update includes a new masthead, new typography, and a number of smaller design changes throughout the paper. Coffin said the goal was not to make the Record feel like something completely different, but to give it a fresh look while keeping the character people have come to know over the years.
“I’ve spent a lot of time going back through old newspapers since taking over, and one thing that really stands out is just how many versions of the Record there have been,” Coffin said. “Different mastheads, different layouts, and styles. The paper has evolved a little with the people making it. I think of this as just another version in that long line.”
The newspaper’s history dates back to 1882, when it was established as the Weekly Record. It later became the Watervliet Record before Anne and Karl Bayer changed the name to the Tri-City Record in 1984 to reflect its coverage of Watervliet, Coloma, and Hartford.
Coffin, along with his brother Tyler, purchased the newspaper Aug. 1, 2026, after Josh worked there as the webmaster and graphic designer. That made redesigning the newspaper a particularly fun, and at times slightly intimidating, project.
“There is a lot of history attached to something like this,” Coffin said. “You don’t want to come in and make changes just for the sake of making changes. I wanted it to feel like us. Just a newer version of us.”
Some pieces of the new look actually started years ago. Ideas that had been played with and tucked away over time eventually became part of the finished design readers are seeing today.
The new look makes its debut in the Record’s Oct. 1st mass-mailing edition, which is being delivered throughout the Watervliet, Coloma, and Hartford areas and surrounding communities.
The edition also arrives just ahead of National Newspaper Week, celebrated Oct. 4-10 this year, making the timing feel especially fitting.
“There is something I still really love about a newspaper,” Coffin said. “You can sit down with it, slow down for a few minutes, and see what has been happening around you. Your schools, your neighbors, your businesses, and your community are all there together.”
The design may be new, but the work behind it is not changing.
The Tri-City Record will continue covering local government, schools, sports, businesses, organizations, events, and the people who make up the communities it serves.
“We look a little different this week,” Coffin said. “But we’re still doing the same things.”
And after nearly 145 years, this is simply the next page.
