On Monday The Chicago Tribune announced changes to its content and format as it prepares to roll out a narrower-by-one-inch page size as of 8 February. Editor Gerould W. Kern revealed these changes to be cost-cutting measures for the Tribune Co. paper, which is still crawling its way out of the bankruptcy protection it entered over a year ago.

The LA Times, another Tribune Co. publication, is also implementing similar cost-cutting alterations, evident yesterday. The most notable change was not the inch the paper also shaved from its width, but rather the new section - LATExtra - including local and California stories including entertainment, business, national and foreign news, as well as the lottery results and weather page. The section runs from Monday to Saturday.

Editor Russ Stanton told staff: "The changes to the paper give us the opportunity to expand and further showcase the terrific enterprise reporting of this newsroom, as well as produce the first new news section in many, many years."

Other changes to the paper are subtle; the date has been moved from the upper left corner of the front page above the "Los Angeles Times" to centred below it. The comics and the TV grid pages have been reconfigured to accommodate the narrower page but contain all the same information.

The changes are not nearly as radical as those carried out in June 2008, when the company cut editorial content at all its newspapers to ensure that at least half of each edition is advertising.

Source: LA Times