Huckleberries Online

Stapilus: Newspaper Shrinkage

Posted by DFO

March 2, 2009 1:27 p.m. • 9 comments

A correspondent (who asked to remain anonymous) pulled together some comparisons of daily newspaper page size, on occasion of the Boise Idaho Statesman’s switch today to publication on the press of the Nampa Idaho Press-Tribune - which is cutting the page size. But it has been cut before, and it has been a process. A big process it has been, too. In 1986, space on a page of the broadsheet Statesman covered 323.1 square inches. As of today, a page is 233.7 square inches. And we should note here that the Statesman is far from alone in the trimming; few if any daily newspapers publish today in the dimensions they did 20 years ago/Randy Stapilus, Ridenbaugh Press. More here.

Question: How much are you bothered when a newspaper literally shrinks in size?

Nine comments on this post so far. Add yours!

florined on March 02 at 1:51 p.m.
The physical size reduction itself doesn’t bother me. I don’t have bird cages to line. And an efficient use of space could let the quality, even the ads, survive with some size reduction. I think it’s possible to retain the quality of reporting that is the soul of a newspaper. The point is, however, whether or not reduction of size automatically translates to reduction of coverage. I suspect that eventually that has to be the effect, regardless of how creative editors and publishers may be. And yes, that bothers me.
BrandonHansen on March 02 at 2:45 p.m.
Personally it’s not the size, but like florined said, the reduction in coverage and quality of it.

And besides, newspaper are ungainly to handle on the bus or in public anyways. I like the tabloid format a whole lot better.

Brandon Hansen
Just South of North
www.justsouthofnorth.com
Stickman on March 02 at 7:25 p.m.
In my Mom’s and Dad’s days, everyone bought a paper. That was the news of the day. Now, never again.
Escapee on March 02 at 9:34 p.m.
Pretty soon yer average size comic book page will be bigger than most newspapers; the local paper down here also re-formatted its page. At first I thot it was an oversized travel brochure…
Nick_Adams on March 02 at 11:54 p.m.
Just take a look at the comments on the Statesman’s website (which, btw, 90% wouldn’t have made it past DFO’s filter). Nobody cares about size; content is king.

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.