Size isn’t everything. Or is it?

Steve Smith said that he’s still hearing about the redesign from readers, and that the response is positive, for the most part. One of the things people like most, he said, is the smaller size.

Which begs the question - if people like a smaller, more manageable newspaper, why don’t we shrink it even more?

Some papers are, as a matter of fact. The Arizona Daily Star , for instance, recently converted to a 48-inch web (two inches narrower than the S-R*). Other newspapers are converting to the Berliner , a tabloid-like format popular in Europe.

But don’t expect any radical changes from the S-R anytime soon. “Our presses can’t go any smaller,” Smith said. A conversion to a smaller size would require a brand-new printing press, which could cost in the neighborhood of $100 million.

* Individual pages would be about 1/2 inch narrower

Teamwork

Some wondered aloud at this morning’s meeting if we weren’t giving short shrift Pierre Marie Altidor-Cespedes by focusing on Adam Morrison’s assist instead of the game-winning shot. Others worried that if Altidor-Cespedes made the headline, Morrison might never pass the ball again (Angry letter writers - please take note that Morrison himself joked about the game-winning assist as his “one and only”).