TIME FOR TABLOIDS IN THAILAND?
For many years broadsheet-sized newspapers dominated the market in the United Kingdom, but in recent years many have adopted smaller tabloid-sized formats, mainly in response to readers wishes.
In the mid 1990s I worked for a newspaper that underwent the change, and another of my past newspapers announced yesterday that it was going tabloid after 177 years as a broadsheet. And while readers generally prefer the easier-to-handle smaller format, in today's economic climate the cost savings of making the switch cannot be ignored.
The Bangkok Post made a small adjustment to its size last year, going to from a traditional broadsheet to what is generally referred to as a 'Berliner' format - slightly narrower than a traditional broadsheet. Directors revealed at the last AGM that minor change in size resulted in a 10-15 per cent cost saving.
The daily newspaper sector - both English and Thai - is dominated by larger format newspapers. I wonder how long it might be before we see one of the major newspapers here making the switch?
3 comments:
Since the 1960s, the most popular UK newspapers have been tabloids. The 'red tops', and the Mail and Express, have all been published in tabloid format for the past 30 years or more.
The Times, Guardian, Independent, and Telegraph were broadsheets, but they were never as popular as the tabloids.
The Times and Guardian switched to smaller sizes after the success of the Independent's tabloid experiment. The Independent (and later the Times) printed both tabloid and broadsheet formats, but the tabloid versions sold more so the broadsheet versions were eventually dropped.
The Bangkok Post is smaller than the Berliner-sized Guardian, so the Bangkok Post is not technically a Berliner paper.
I've photographed (left to right) the new Guardian, new Bangkok Post, old Guardian, and old Bangkok Post here:
http://www.matthewhunt.com/newspapers.jpg
Matthew,
Great picture, thanks for the link. (Anyone interested in this story should take a look at Matthew's link).
It's been a year since I held a real copy of The Guardian so I have forgotten just how 'small' it is, while still retaining the broadsheet style and feel. I wonder if the current size of the Post actually has a name?
Looking at your image it's quite hard to see where the 10-15% cost savings came from with The Bangkok Post's size reduction. Sure they will have used less ink and less paper, put that much?
Presumably the Post used a size template, but I don't know the measurements or name.
I'm not sure about ink, but certainly newsprint is very costly, so any reduction in page size would surely save money.
But as you say, the difference in size is small. When compared with the old Post size, you can see the difference, but the smaller Post now feels just like a regular broadsheet - the smaller size isn't really perceptible.
Mat.
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