The Independent

Tomorrow morning, The Independent is changing. You will find everything you have come to expect from us - the same cast of top writers, the excellent pictures, the intelligence, the unbiased attitudes. But you will also find us a fresher, sharper-looking paper, which is easier to use and - I hope - more enjoyable to read.

We are changing because, after more than a decade of accumulated experience, we think it is time to break the mould of custom and habit to produce a better paper - not just than the one you are reading, but than anything else on the newsagents' shelves. Throughout this year, not only over the past few weeks, we have been asking ourselves some hard questions about many of the assumptions of broadsheet journalism. Has everyone's agenda become a little lazy, a little narrow? Are there lessons to be learned from overseas? Is the writing as focused and thought-through as it should be? Are the designs of papers actually helpful, or just the result of copy-cat reflexes during a time of intense competition?

As a result, we have come up with a new kind of broadsheet. It hasn't simply been redesigned, though it will look different. It is edited and written in a different way, which will be tougher for the journalists and better for the readers.

No one will pick up tomorrow's paper and think we've dumbed down - far from it. But intelligent should mean bright and shining, not grey and cramped. Tomorrow's Independent will shock some conservative-minded souls, I have no doubt. But we've always been the paper for people of a less conventional caste of mind. So I believe that most of you will get the idea immediately, and grin when you see it.