Californian free daily adopts a broadsheet format

Posted by Christie Silk on July 27, 2009 at 3:13 PM

The Daily News, a free daily paper serving Palo Alto, California, is changing its format that of a 21- inch deep broadsheet. The Daily News will become the first free daily broadsheet. The redesign comes as the paper moves printing presses to that owned by its parent company, MediaNews Group.

The adoption of a broadsheet format is an unusual occurrence in the world of the free press, as the tabloid format has been preferred for its ease of use. Free dailies tend to prioritise ease of carrying and reading, to attract those in mass transit, which accounts for the bulk of its markets.Yet, as freedaily.com, (a tracker of developments in the free newspaper industry) points out, the Daily News does not rely too greatly on mass transit distribution methods. Rather, its circulation is based on individuals choosing to pick up a copy of the paper from news racks or other public distribution posts.

It will be interesting to see how advertisers respond to the move to a broadsheet format. In the mainstream newspaper industry, advertisers have tended to prefer the broadsheet size, as it allowed for larger pictures. It also offers greater space, maximising a paper's advertising capacities. This could offer the Daily News opportunities to increases its advertising revenue streams, which have fallen recently, necessitating the paper to cease publication on Sundays and Mondays.

The free press has presented mainstream news publications with a significant challenge since its inception. The Daily News is considered to be one of the first and most successful American free dailies, thus the effects of this radical change to the format will presumably be watched closely by fellow free and paid for publications as they consider stylistic and commercial changes to attract advertisers and readers alike.

Source: free-daily.com