It’s Not About the Shape of the Paper

The truth is I’m not opposed to tabloids. I When we first were developing zoned sections in Philadelphia we made them tabs, so they would be distinctive, would slide out of the mainsheet with ease, would give the readers in the zones a feeling of uniqueness, a section just for them. One of the most successful sections of the Inquirer was and probably still is Weekend, the Friday entertainment tab.

There’s no question that we competed like hell with the Daily News, but not because it was a tab.

It seems to me the shape of the paper isn’t really the issue; what matters are the four Cs: the content, the continuity, the coherence and the completeness.

The one issue on which broadsheets have a modest advantage is continuity. If you have to go searching for the section you want, that’s a turnoff to readers. But there are plenty of broadsheets that move the business section or local news or sports around from day to day.

I’ve long admired Newsday and had grudging respect for the Philadelphia Daily News.

This is off the point, but the concern I would have about switching is simply that: switching. Readers of newspapers tend to be creatures of habit. Change something and it pisses them off. Some of the problem many papers have had in recent years is because they keep changing things — and fibbing to readers about why, contending it’s to improve the paper when it’s really to improve the bottom line.