US:Wall Street Journal's U.S. edition slims down to save money

Posted by Anna-Maria Mende on October 12, 2005 at 11:04 AM

The Wall Street Journal yesterday announced that it will redesign its U.S. edition in the coming months. The changes come with the goal to reduce production costs, improve distribution and make the paper more readable. Most notably, the paper is going to reduce the width of the paper's pages from 15 inches to 12 inches, while the hight will stay the same. The new format, planned to start in January 2007, requires retrofitting at 17 printing press sites, which is likely to cost about $43 million. However, the smaller page-size is expected to cut operating expenses by about $18 million a year. The new format also brings the paper's size closer to many other U.S. broadsheets, therefore "giving the newspaper flexibility to contract out its printing in certain locations that are hard to reach from existing printing plants".

Other design changes include better navigation and organization of the layout. For example, there will be fewer articles that continue from one page to another. Another change is a stronger connection of the print edition to the paper's online edition.

Commenting on the redesign plans, Visual Editors states, "The great Tab debate continues with this added observation ... U.S. publishers may not be rushing to convert to tabloid size but not one publisher is increasing the size of their newspaper" (see also discussion on Visual Editors).

The Wall Street Journal is currently also redesigning its Asian and European editions. Starting on October 17 they will appear in a compact format. The new editions will also try to connect the paper's print and online edition, which is expressed in a new logo (see previous posting). As PaidContent reports, the online edition will also start an experiment on October 17 and launch partnerships with 10 other newspaper websites worldwide. Each site will translate a business story into English every day and the Asian and European editions of the Wall Street Journal will link to it. Bill Grueskin, managing editor, said "These links will provide our readers something of great value ? their view and understanding of their economies ? while we provide something back to those sites, that is, traffic from Wall Street Journal readers."

Sources: New York Business, Visual Editors, Wall Street Journal, PaidContent