Here we grow again
If you were one of those folks reading a newspaper in the ‘60 and ‘70s, you remember when you could wrap a shark or two in it when you were finished. The pages were huge. Most people didn’t have wing spans large enough to accommodate web sizes of the day – the measurement from one side to the other.
Over the years, like chocolate bars, bags of cookies and a host of other things, the package became smaller. In the case of newspapers, the shrink was often dictated by the ever-rising cost of newsprint.
This week, Sun Newspapers is reversing the trend, dumping the tabloid format and going to what is known as broadsheet.
It’s a bit of a departure from what we’ve all become accustomed to here over the past couple decades.
There are a number of advantages.
For one thing, by necessity photos were kept small on tabloid pages. There really wasn’t anywhere to go unless you wanted to stretch a photo over two pages, which looked silly.
With a broadsheet page, there’s more room to showcase photos. Images are a hit with our readers, and we’re excited about the prospects available to us through the new format.
With the reorganization of the pages, we are also able to place sports on pages where there are full-color photo slots. We have some of the best sports photographers around, and seeing their work in living color will make you appreciate them even more.
Another area of expansion will be our editorial page, which now has twice the space. That means we have more room for editorials, columns, letters to the editor, political cartoons and a number of other features. If you’ve ever been tempted to write a letter to the editor, now would be a good time to do it.
The new packaging is certainly to the advantage of our readers, but some things about good newspapers never change — tabloid, broadsheet, online, eformat or something else. That’s the solid week-in, week-out content that we attempt to provide for our readers. We hope to do an even better job on that account given the new format.
Have you ever walked into your favorite grocery store and noticed things had been moved around a bit? The beans were now where the crackers once were. And in the process of finding the beans again, you’ve discovered other items in the store you’d never seen before? It’s similar for us.
It’s going to take us several weeks, no doubt, to adjust to the new format (making sure the ground beef isn’t on the shelf next to the napkins, to carry the metaphor further.) So if things look a bit out of place here and there between now and when we reach perfection (or as near so as possible), bear with us.
And don’t be shy about offering your feedback on the new format. Everyone here at ECM Sun newspapers would enjoy hearing what you have to say. Of course, that applies to just about everything we do, not just the format.
Enjoy.
