Wednesday, January 14, 2004
In the UK, broadsheets are now tabloid, and I’m not just referring to their editorial policies.
Late last year, first The Independent and then quickly The Times started producing issues of their papers on tabloid-sized paper, specifically aimed at commuters struggling to turn broadsheet pages on a crowded train.
I got the chance to check out a copy of the Independent while I was in England over Christmas, and I think it’s great – much more manageable even if you’re not hemmed in on the 7.45 to King’s Cross.
There’s obviously a design overhead in laying out two versions of the same paper, and the smaller size performs so much better from a usability perspective, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the broadsheet version was rapidly phased out.
Which leaves us with only one question – what do we use instead as a derogatory term since we can’t just slag something off as being ‘tabloid’ any more.
– Guardian coverage of the Independent’s switch