Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Tabloid Broadsheets

Our Lady Has Left the Building

06:23 / 12.09.05

The new-look 'Berliner-style' Guardian is out today, and the Guardian website is making PDFs of the first new issue free to download until the 26th of September 2005.

This follows The Independent and The Times shrinking their non-Sunday issues which did give a boost to their circulation. An episode of 'The Culture Show' on BBC2 earlier this year on the situation had a historian that explained that the broadsheets developed when papers were charged on the number of pages, therefore they got bigger paper instead (and there was a couple who stopped reading the Times when it went tabloid and switched to the Guardian, seemingly not concerned about the political direction of what they read but not wanting to read a newspaper that was tabloid-sized).

So, what to people think of the new look Guardian? Going for a shape that doesn't get used on the majority of newsagents shelves is a bold move, but is it a foolhardy one? And has anybody stopped/started getting a paper because of it's new size?

07:10 / 12.09.05

I think it works pretty well. There seems to be a huge amount more editorial (possibly a bit too much), and I love the centre spread (photojournalism gets a leg-up at last) I think dropping Doonesbury was a bad move, though. I can see why they've done it (new paper, why should we hang on to stuff about another country, yada yada) but I think there are an awful lot of people who got a taste for political cartoons from seeing Steve Bell and Garry Trudeau side by side. I wonder what Bell makes of it?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

07:26 / 12.09.05

When I first saw the new Berliner Guardian I thought it looked lovely. I still do, but I've realised I don't actually like the paper it's printed on very much. A little too shiny somehow.

I'm very pissed off about Doonesbury, though.

I think Berliner's a good size- broadsheets were way too unwieldy, but the tabloid Times and Indy are just too fucking thick now, and a bitch to find stuff in (also, on a selfish note, to check each page individually at work- for various reasons- most of them computery- it takes almost as long to process a page with one story as it does one with several).

Tryphena Absent

09:26 / 12.09.05

I like the size as well, it feels quite neat but I think I prefer the shape of The Independent. The colour is nice, I do like the blue band across the top and the photo in the middle is lush but I wish they'd staple it together so I could read it with complete ease on the tube. What's the point of everything getting smaller if the pages still fall all over the place? At least I could fold the old one into quarters and read it, which kept the paper neatly in place when some suited old man elbowed me in the ribs. I also miss the fonts a bit, I always like the way The Guardian's words looked and am a little wary of the paper it's been printed on. All in all I think it should grow on me and soon I'll forget what it used to look like.

Tryphena Absent

09:28 / 12.09.05

... am also distinctly unimpressed by G2 today.

10:32 / 12.09.05

I will be purchasing the new look Guardian at lunch so my views on it will be posted later.
As for the tabloid Times, I have to say it's much more practical, both on the tube & in the cramped confines of the office break-room but I kind of miss the broadsheet format, in a wistful, wouldn't-actually-go-back-to-it kind of way. The recent T2 re-vamp is rubbish as well.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

15:03 / 12.09.05

Nina- nah-ah-ah.

Staples in newspapers= TEH suXX0r. I have absolutely no idea why (sure, they're impractical at work, but that's not it), I just hates them, I does.

16:23 / 12.09.05

Happy as a fluffy bunny with a noseful of cocaine. Long overdue move to a handier size for the commute and they've chosen well. I like the word Berliner too and think it should henceforward always be adjoined to the word Guardian.

Only quibble is about G2 which looks tiny! Have to say that I found reading the content easy enough on the bus home. TV pages are hard on my elderly eyes though.

Change can be so bracing.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

17:53 / 12.09.05

I'm not sure whether the idea to go for a completely different size to every other British newspaper is going to be wise, having an experimental 'read' of the first issue today (it's all right, I can give up any time) I tended to feel that by not going down to tabloid-size it rather negated the point of shrinking at all, but then I tend to feel even a tabloid newspaper is too large to read on public transport without elbowing the person next to you as though you were the Barefoot Doctor.

The full-colour aspect was nice, and if they can always get such amazing photos for the centre pages that will help.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

18:06 / 12.09.05

Know what you mean market-wise, Lady, but have you ever actually TRIED quickly flipping to a page you're after in the tabloid-sized Times or Indy? Fuck, they're like bricks now. Hate them hate hate hate. And the broads are too... well, broad. I'm liking the new Berliner Guardian except for, as I said, the paper stock. Which sucks.

(I noticed yesterday some enterprising soul on eBay was flogging Saturday's Guardian- the last in the old size- starting at 99p. Well under cover price. Not a gold mine, as such.)

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

18:23 / 12.09.05

(Almost certainly a 2nd edition, too).

Tryphena Absent

18:42 / 12.09.05

I know staples suck but I am trying to read the thing on the tube in rush hour. Sheer practicality is all I'm asking for.

18:51 / 12.09.05

am also distinctly unimpressed by G2 today.

What I loved about G2 was the stats 'n' graphics section about arms dealing. It looks exactly like one of the 'source pages' we used to have to write essays from in Modern Studies exams, I just glance at it and wonder where the set question is.

I'm another fan of the photos in the middle, too. Not so sure about 'the guardian' all in lower case, but I'm not generally a fan of lower case anyway, so that might just be a personal thing.

19:28 / 12.09.05

Fuck, they're like bricks now.

I've bought the Indie on a few days when a Guardian was unavailable. It was a brick, right enough, but it's smaller yet than the Berliner Guardian.

I'm wondering about all the times one headline catches your eye and then you start skimming snippets to the left and right. The new format gives fewer opportunities for serendipity. If you're interested in X and X is the subject of the article, with big picture, that's both pages taken up. Leaves no room elsewhere for interesting morsels that you didn't know you were interested in until you'd read them.

On balance, having read through it all now, I'm still a coked-up bunny.

23:15 / 12.09.05

I dunno, I really like the compact Indie, particularly its striking and attention grabbing 'campaign' covers - these covers have frequently persuaded me to buy the paper even when i didn't intend to...

23:32 / 12.09.05

I'm going to be a killjoy and say that I'm not sure about it. Obviously, it's size is a huge improvement - I've been a staunch supporter of shrinking the broadsheets for ages - and the patchwork of colour pictures is great. It might just be unfamiliarity, but I just don't think much of the new typeface. I don't much like this new Guardian Egyptian font on the headlines, and theguardian masthead in lower case looks a bit Funday Times to me. I try to tell myself that it looks sophisticated in a European sort of way (it looks vaguely Italian now), but it still jars with me. Not sure about the blue either.

Hmph. Might just be a matter of getting used to it. I fear change.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

07:07 / 13.09.05

Actually, yeah, the Indy is doing good things with the front pages, but nothing really that they weren't doing for the last few months of broadsheet sized. I think Xoc's put his finger on it... it's not like reading a newspaper, where interesting stuff catches your eye- it's like reading a magazine where you kind of choose what you're after to start with.

07:26 / 13.09.05

Doonesbury will be back next week apparently, with a catch-up page for this week's strips in Friday's guardian...

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

07:59 / 13.09.05

Hooray!

Tryphena Absent

10:19 / 13.09.05

Yes the font is just not as sophisticated, stylish... modernist as it was.

I don't care about Doonesbury, sorry chaps.

OJ

12:52 / 13.09.05

I wasn't impressed by the G2 yesterday either. Firstly because it's now so damn small and secondly because the content seems bitty and fragmented. The infographic feature seemed like a gimmick to me, but possibly that's because they've introduced so many new features at once: they all feel a bit gimmicky.

It felt slightly less bitty today , on account of the extended report on the Uzbek massacre. I'd be in favour of reinstating the principle of having a feature lead story for the G2 instead of the short diary pieces.

Overall, I quite like the size and the use of colour in the new Guardian but I think they've gone overboard on the photographs because they can and the marketing campaign says so. I'm a fan of photojournalism, but there are so many images some of them feel devoid of context and some - like the Isabella Blow thing - look like they've wandered in from the Sunday Times Style supplement.

But it's a better effort than the tabloid Independent, which does look dull in comparison.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

14:22 / 14.09.05

Ein Stoat In Der Hoelle but have you ever actually TRIED quickly flipping to a page you're after in the tabloid-sized Times or Indy?

Yes, piece of piss. Really. I don't have any problems at all, I just wish that the Indy would switch to the non-smudge ink so I don't get dirty hands just reading it. I just wish they'd tabloid the Sunday Indy too, as they tend to polybag them these days there's no real reason why they couldn't.

19:53 / 14.09.05

I love the tabloid Independent! If I had the choice between broadsheet Guardian and tabloid Independent, I'd go with the tabloid everytime.

I *think* I like the new Guardian. Was very annoyed yesterday to find there were no papers left in the morning when I went to grab one (don't tell me it sold out!) but I picked it up Monday. Not sure I like the new color on the masthead, though.

21:17 / 14.09.05

I really like it. It's the size of the International Guardian, which I used to read in NZ, and also of an IT paper I used to write for. I think it's just a great size for a paper - easy to carry, easy to read.
I agree about G2 being too wee, thogh - I think it should just be the same format as the rest.

Tabitha Tickletooth

13:59 / 20.09.05

Overall, I like the new format. It does seem a bit design-heavy at times which, as noted above, makes it feel more magazine- than newspaper-like. I also miss the idea of a weekend broadsheet. Yes, on a commute the bigger format is irritating, but I find it luxurious on a weekend. There is something so 'weekend' about stretching out a broadsheet on your bed or in a park. [I was away last weekend so haven't seen the Sat edition yet - please forgive me if it is still broadsheet and my regret is misdirected.]

Many of the new design elements, such as the blue banner, remind me of The Editor magazine-style supplement which they used to run once a week (which I loved and still have a pile of at home). My irrational criticism? I don't like the leaders running across the page - it should be a leader 'column'. It just should.

12:59 / 21.09.05

They were giving away free thegrauniads at Brighton station yesterday (and so I assume London stations too) including a discount to get several copies dirt cheap. Bribery to stick to the new format? hmmm.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

09:04 / 24.10.05

Anyone seen the tabloid Independent on Sunday? The main part of the newspaper is now about 100 pages long and is on that narrow verge between usable and bulky. It's certainly easier to manipulate than the old bigger paper but some of the extra sections that sit inside, like the Compact Traveller are quite difficult to fish out.

The layout is quite unusla too, Home News, Comment and Analysis, then Foreign News, then Sport.

The Observer will be going Berliner in the Spring. Small is beautiful and the way of the future!

13:02 / 24.10.05

I dunno. I've had more time with the Berliner format. I'm annoyed that where once the Media Guidian was the same format as G2 it is now a different size, thus making it more difficult to read while walking around. And there still isn't really enough content in the Technology suppliment to justify its existence in berliner format...

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

19:34 / 24.10.05

The fucking Wall Street Journal's gone tabloid now as well!!!

Who saw THAT coming? Certainly not me...