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| Turning tabloid can save money - but you must not skimp on talent | Turning tabloid can save money - but you must not skimp on talent |
| (7 months later) | |
| Sun 18 Jun 2017 00.03 BST | |
| Last modified on Sat 2 Dec 2017 03.08 GMT | |
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| There’s a certain personal irony in the Guardian’s decision to turn tabloid. It’s something I was keen on, as editor, almost three decades ago: and that was one driving force behind the decision to package broadsheet news with tabloid features in the second section we called G2. Alas, time ran out as the Indy and Times took tabloid plunges and the Guardian opted for a bigger, complex Berliner page size, handsome but pretty lonely in a new world of printing contracts and ad sizes. | There’s a certain personal irony in the Guardian’s decision to turn tabloid. It’s something I was keen on, as editor, almost three decades ago: and that was one driving force behind the decision to package broadsheet news with tabloid features in the second section we called G2. Alas, time ran out as the Indy and Times took tabloid plunges and the Guardian opted for a bigger, complex Berliner page size, handsome but pretty lonely in a new world of printing contracts and ad sizes. |
| Of course, the new move – to be printed on Trinity Mirror presses – is reported as necessary cost saving (for the Observer as well). But it can’t be left simply at that. Every different print size carries its own imperatives: in tabloid, for pace, variety and contrast as pages turn. See how the Times mixes short and longer pieces to give a sense of momentum. Fewer big picture spreads; a concentration on the variety of life, mixing courtroom and human interest with politics and diplomacy. | Of course, the new move – to be printed on Trinity Mirror presses – is reported as necessary cost saving (for the Observer as well). But it can’t be left simply at that. Every different print size carries its own imperatives: in tabloid, for pace, variety and contrast as pages turn. See how the Times mixes short and longer pieces to give a sense of momentum. Fewer big picture spreads; a concentration on the variety of life, mixing courtroom and human interest with politics and diplomacy. |
| I never saw any reason why tabloid should signal a lurch downmarket. It didn’t – and doesn’t – in any of the top European exemplars (see El País in Madrid). But there are still natural questions to answer as change comes. | I never saw any reason why tabloid should signal a lurch downmarket. It didn’t – and doesn’t – in any of the top European exemplars (see El País in Madrid). But there are still natural questions to answer as change comes. |
| One of the most difficult means putting cost savings to one side as the driving force of upheaval. That’s not a benefit readers can easily embrace. Tabloid on the newsstand needs to be a better, sharper, a more compelling read – which in turn (see the Times and Daily Mail) can mean more editing time, more effort on making the print mix positive and no thought at all of Trinity Mirror’s own recipe of slotting tales into standard layout templates. | One of the most difficult means putting cost savings to one side as the driving force of upheaval. That’s not a benefit readers can easily embrace. Tabloid on the newsstand needs to be a better, sharper, a more compelling read – which in turn (see the Times and Daily Mail) can mean more editing time, more effort on making the print mix positive and no thought at all of Trinity Mirror’s own recipe of slotting tales into standard layout templates. |
| That may burnish balance sheets for a few years. But it isn’t making print part of any medium-term future until digital begins to kick in with revenue streams that can sustain newsrooms of strength and expertise. At the April end of the financial year a couple of months back, sales of the three national Trinity titles were 15%, 16% and nearly 12% down, easily the worst record going. | That may burnish balance sheets for a few years. But it isn’t making print part of any medium-term future until digital begins to kick in with revenue streams that can sustain newsrooms of strength and expertise. At the April end of the financial year a couple of months back, sales of the three national Trinity titles were 15%, 16% and nearly 12% down, easily the worst record going. |
| So travel hopefully with creative talents engaged. Make sure the new shape makes a competitive case of its own. Not rocket science, but it does mean starting thinking afresh. And with that obvious need fully realised, as it surely must and will be? Then change, as ever, can deliver a world of opportunity. | So travel hopefully with creative talents engaged. Make sure the new shape makes a competitive case of its own. Not rocket science, but it does mean starting thinking afresh. And with that obvious need fully realised, as it surely must and will be? Then change, as ever, can deliver a world of opportunity. |
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