Launches and Strategies

13 September 2005

The venerable Guardian thinks small

Britain's Guardian newspaper, a venerable 184-year-old broadsheet, has become the latest major daily to convert to a compact format in a bid to win back younger, time-pressed readers who often turn to electronic means to get their news. Unlike its rivals -- The Times of London and The Independent, which have converted to the smaller tabloid format -- The Guardian has chosen the "Berliner" format...

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12 September 2005

'Berliner' format Guardian debuts

LONDON, England -- The Guardian newspaper published its first full-color, trimmed-down edition Monday, the third British broadsheet to switch to a smaller format. The midsize "Berliner" format -- midway between tabloid and broadsheet -- rolled off the company's £50 million new presses as part of an £80 million redesign. France's Le Monde newspaper also uses the "Berliner" format, with pages 12.4...

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12 September 2005

Guardian Paper Launches Trimmer Format

LONDON – Britain's Guardian newspaper launched its trimmer format Monday with color on every page, upping the competition with other British broadsheets that have scaled down in recent years. The Guardian is the third major British paper to move to a smaller, more commuter-friendly format in a bid to reverse slumping sales. It followed The Times and The Independent in switching to tabloid format...

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12 September 2005

The shape of things to come

Welcome to the Berliner Guardian. No, we won't go on calling it that for long, and yes, it's an inelegant name. We tried many alternatives, related either to size or to the European origins of the format. In the end, "the Berliner" stuck. But in a short time we hope we can revert to being simply the Guardian. Many things about today's paper are different. Starting with the most obvious, the page...

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12 September 2005

Is new Guardian too little, too late?

So, is the new-format Guardian - neither broadsheet nor tabloid - too little, too late, or not little enough? Or has it pulled off the difficult trick of making the middle ground both radical and chic? It's two years since the Independent and The Times tested the water as tabloids and saw their sales rise. The Guardian decided not to, even though its sales were falling - and it has had to hold its...

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12 September 2005

Guardian launches new look paper

LONDON (Reuters) - The Guardian newspaper is launching a revamped, compact version on Monday in a move to attract new readers and fend off the growing threat of freesheets like the Metro. The Guardian is moving to a smaller "Berliner" format, which is slightly larger than a tabloid and is currently used by continental European newspapers such as Le Monde. The shift follows similar downsizing from...

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12 September 2005

'Guardian' Gets Trimmer, Launches Berliner Format

LONDON (AP): Britain's Guardian newspaper launched its trimmer format Monday with color on every page, upping the competition with other British broadsheets that have scaled down in recent years. The Guardian is the third major British paper to move to a smaller, more commuter-friendly format in a bid to reverse slumping sales. It followed The Times and The Independent in switching to tabloid...

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12 September 2005

But Carefully Consider the Options: WAN

Smaller-sized newspapers are the future, but publishers should take time to optimise their strategy before rushing to change format. This is the advice of Jim Chisholm, Strategy Advisor to the World Association of Newspapers, speaking in Washington at a recent Newspaper Association of America "Free vs. Paid/Tabloid vs. Broadsheet" conference. "Yes smaller formats are a good idea. Readers have been...

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11 September 2005

Guardian tries to catch up with the times

AT The Guardian, they claim that they came up with the idea of a compact newspaper long before The Independent. In August 2003, so the story goes, the paper’s editor, Alan Rusbridger, returned from a holiday brandishing a copy of the Italian newspaper La Repubblica. Executives at The Guardian had been looking at the possi-bility of a tabloid edition for months, worried by market research that...

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11 September 2005

The changing of the Guardian

Alan Rusbridger, editor of the Guardian (and editor-in-chief of The Observer), thumbs through a battered volume by CP Scott, the architect of the newspaper that tomorrow embarks on arguably the most radical - and certainly the most expensive - relaunch in its 184-year history. He reads: 'The editor and the business manager should march hand in hand,' and then adds: 'and that's how it was, largely...

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