The same, but smaller

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Mon Mar 29, 2004 6:23 am

The New York Times has a story about the new tabloid (which Times of London editor Robert Thomson prefers to call "compact") editions of mainstream British broadsheets. This innovation hasn't gotten all that much attention in this country, but publishers have to look at the effect it has had on circulation in Britain. The Independent's new tabloid, which requires several staff members to reconfigure and lightly re-edit the broadsheet's articles, cost more than $10 million last fall in production, staff and marketing costs. ***I would guess that sentence understates the work involved in converting from broadsheet to tabloid. It would be a familiar nightmare to copy editors here who must reconfigure local stories for "zones," I suspect. It would be interesting to hear from our British colleagues about the experience.***

majorbabs · **Posted:** Mon Mar 29, 2004 9:50 pm

Would you please explain to me the difference between "lightly re-edit" and "re-edit?" Only the ickiest errors get fixed? In other famous words, WTF?

Bolder1 · **Posted:** Mon Mar 29, 2004 10:05 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by majorbabs:
Would you please explain to me the difference between "lightly re-edit" and "re-edit?" Only the ickiest errors get fixed? In other famous words, WTF?<hr></blockquote>Probably involves trimming stories (and, a cynic might add, adding a few colorful adjectives to comply with tabloid style).I suspect the real heavy lifting is born by the paginators/designers, who have to remake every page for the tab. Personally, as someone who reads the paper on the subway, I like tabloids. Broadsheets are just too cumbersome. Is it the Rocky or the Denver Post that's a tab? Whichever, I like it.

paulwiggins · **Posted:** Mon Mar 29, 2004 10:44 pm

For most copy they would be able to cut from the bottom without too much difficulty. For dedicated stuff they'd have a set of layout library templates. Doesn't sound difficult especially for people who went through the cadet system and had to become adept at both design and contemt. As for that word tabloid. It's only a measure, 61p2 wide by 38cm in the case of our press. There's no watermark that says Abandon standards all who enter here[ March 29, 2004: Message edited by: Paul Wiggins ]

paulwiggins · **Posted:** Mon Mar 29, 2004 10:48 pm

One more thing UK papers have been produciing weekly tabloid wrapups for we anglophiles in the colonies for quite some time now, which would help tighten the nuts and bolts of production method.

ramblerdan · **Posted:** Wed Mar 31, 2004 3:28 pm

> Is it the Rocky or the Denver Post that's a tab? Whichever, I like it.It's the Rocky Mountain News. At least in the years I read it, it was a good example of tab not necessarily meaning bad.

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