Letter from the editor: A new look to mark our 25th anniversary

Dear Reader, Today, you will notice your Independent has changed.

We have decided to use the occasion of the paper's 25th birthday for a makeover. The masthead is bolder – still "The Independent", complete with eagle, but now more striking and harder to miss on the news stands.

The body typeface and headline fonts we use have been made more readable.

The other, main alteration is that The Viewspaper has gone. We thought long and hard about this. Viewspaper was created to draw attention to the unrivalled quality of The Independent's commentators. We continue to take pride in this quality. But since taking over three months ago, I've become aware that the Viewspaper could be something of a ghetto, to be taken out and read later – but in truth, put on one side and, during a busy day, all too often forgotten.

What I want is a faster, more accessible and urgent paper, one that is easily navigated and that puts you in no doubt what The Independent stands for and what its brilliant, provocative columnists and writers are thinking. So today, The Viewspaper disappears, with the paper's editorial all comprised in a bigger, single-section paper.

There are some other changes, including an expanded features section, just after World News. But rest assured none of your favourite components have been discarded – they are still there.

The result, I hope, is a modern, confident, dynamic, sharper paper – one that remains exactly true to its original values but is now a friendlier, less daunting read.

Please let me know what you think.

Best wishes,

Chris Blackhurst

Editor