Chicago Tribune to convert to tab format for single-copy sales
This happens Monday, the Tribune’s Phil Rosenthal reports.
A published edition (left) and a tabloid prototype (right):
News, sports and biz will appear in the tabloid main section, Rosenthal reports. Various features and classified sections will remain in broadsheet but insert into the tab.
Rosenthal reports:
Home delivery subscribers will continue to receive the Tribune’s traditional broadsheet edition, which will have the same editorial content as the single-copy tabloid version with minor differences in headlines, photos and captions because of the new size, the paper said.
Tribune executives said they believe publishing near-identical versions of the paper simultaneously in broadsheet and compact editions is unprecedented among major U.S. dailies.
Hmm. Our recollection is that The Patriot News of Harrisburg, Pa., printed parallel editions for several months a couple of years ago. The tabloid edition — which was called The Patriot — was a simple repackage, as opposed to a youth tab like the Tribune’s RedEye or Norfolk’s Link, which The Virginian-Pilot closed down last month.
As design consultant Alan Jacobson reported two years ago:
For the first time in America, readers were given a choice of getting their newspaper in either broadsheet or tab format. This option was available to subscribers and single-copy purchasers.
For six months, the Patriot-News sold 100,000 papers in broadsheet format and about 1,000 in tab format – that’s a 100-to-1 preference for broadsheet to tab.
Alan quoted Patriot-News publisher John Kirkpatrick:
The future of the newspaper industry might well be a tabloid edition. We haven’t, however, been able to prove it here.
We’ve proved that a lot of occasional readers really like the compact format. We’ve also proved that turning them into regular buyers has been incredibly daunting.
The tabloid Tribune will cost 75 cents, the Tribune reports, as opposed to 50 cents for its tabloid competitor, the Sun-Times, or its free, youth-oriented sister paper RedEye.
SND/Update’s Matt Mansfield posted a Q&A with Tribune presentation director Steve Cavendish about the change:
Q: Why a compact/tabloid? Why now?
A: We’ve always known that there is a sizable portion of our readership that prefers the format and would read us as a compact. Every time we’ve done surveys or focus groups, there’s a segment (primarily commuters) whom we’ve had to tell “Sorry, but we’re a broadsheet.” Well, now we’re both. If you want a broadsheet, we’ll deliver it to your door. If you want a compact, we’ll sell it to you on the street Monday through Friday.
Poynter media business analyist Rick Edmunds raises a number of questions about the move, including:
* What is the cost of laying out the paper twice? Poynter visual journalism faculty member Sara Quinn points out that the paper would have to be designed daily for two formats, with visuals, including ads, requiring adjustment.
* Won’t the new Tribune tabloid compete with Red Eye, the paper’s free tabloid? Cavendish says no, in an interview with SND. “They’re aimed at different markets. Unless the governor of our state is trying to get some of us fired or we’re inaugurating one of our own as president, you’ll likely see different topics on the front of each publication.”
* The paper has said the move will increase single copy sales, but will it? And will the cost of ads vary from tabloid to broadsheet?
Chicagoland-based consultant Robb Montgomery — a former employee of both the Tribune and the Sun-Times who was a huge advocate for tabloid design before he got into multimedia consulting — writes at VisualEditors:
If past history holds any predictive power, it is foregone that readers will be prefer the small format.
From Kuala Lumpur to London - every broadsheet that offered both sizes to readers eventually stopped offering the broadsheet version within six months. The Times of London, the Straits Times . . will it be the same for the Chicago Tribune?
Robb invites discussion. Find that post here.
The official announcement on the Trib’s own web page has already gathered comments. One of the funniest was left this morning by Gina:
At first I thought this was an Onion article.
Reader Jonathan Salem Baskin commented:
It’s all about the content, not the format. First the paper gets reconfigured to look like a web page, and now it’s getting reformatted to feel like the National Enquirer? Redefining the ‘how’ the info gets shared is a mistake, as it’s not sustainable or truly differentiated. The only thing the Trib can truly “own” is unique content, and I rarely hear (or read) anything about that.
Find Rosenthal’s Trib story here. Find Tribune publisher Tony Hunter’s official memo here.
Find the Q&A with Cavendish at SND/Update. Find the Poynter analysis here.
Read Jacobson’s essay here about why tabs won’t play in the U.S.
January 13th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Sick. I understand some of the reasons people move to tabloid-style papers, but personally I’ve always felt that the tab-style seems more trashy. I can understand smaller to mid-sized papers making a move like this, but for those bigger papers to move to tabloid…it makes me a little sick.
I’m a young journalist without much experience, but every one of my peers with whom I study with, meet at J-Conferences, etc…nobody likes tabloid style unless you’re going to carry the persona that goes with it (I love the Sun Times).