Newspapers throughout Europe (and, to a lesser extent, the U.S.) that are contemplating a shift from full-size to tabloid format will certainly note with interest the experience of the U.K.'s
The
Independent Sunday edition, which, since moving to a compact format in October. is reporting that circulation has soared by 13.27 percent. The increase was achieved after just three editions
of the newly trimmed paper were published. The experiment, carefully observed throughout the Continent, is thought to herald a wave of smaller papers, which consumers seem to find more
user-friendly than the larger versions that preceded them. The European interpretation of "tabloid" is somewhat larger than the familiar tab-sized paper in the U.S., but it is nevertheless quite a
change for readers. Citing newsprint costs, a number of U.S. papers are thinking about shrinking the size of their papers as well. Notably, the
Wall Street Journal has already announced
that it plans considerable savings by slighly shaving its width beginning in about a year.
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