Back online! Tabloid or compact?
Posted in Future of newspapers, Newspaper business on April 17th, 2009 by Bob – Be the first to commentGads! Life without a computer is simply the pits, especially after moving my entire communicative life to digital. I finally got a new computer, and I am trying to catch up. I am somewhat shocked that life went on without me!
Couple of random thoughts.
The tabloid format still carries enough negative weight that smaller-size newspapers are now referred to as compacts. I guess that makes the Tryon (NC) Daily Bulletin — an 8 1/2 by 11 and the self-proclaimed World’s Smallest Daily — a sub-compact. I wonder if the shrinkage will continue and we’ll end up with a pocket-sized smart paper.
It struck me as I was grocery shopping the other day that newspapers and food companies are doing the same thing: shrinking the content as a way to cut costs. Food packages are shrinking while costs increase. Newspapers are shrinking staff and format, forcing stories to be shorter to avoid having a page be nothing but gray body type. I don’t think either move is a good one.
If more and more people get into Twitter and get used to the micro-blogging approach to communication, would it be easier to get people to accept micro-payment news models?
(Follow me on Twitter.)