If the Oregonian looks smaller to you today, you’re not going crazy. Starting this morning, the state’s main daily will be two inches skinnier.
The O will henceforth be 46 inches wide, not 48. Papers across the country have slimmed down to save on costs.
In an internal memo, Editor Peter Bhatia told staff that the smaller size would bring several benefits to reader: “Readers will find the narrower paper easier to handle, especially when riding mass transit.” Apparently people weren’t able to get a grip on the Oregonian before?
The memo also says that no regular features will be cut because of the shrinkage.
something about penis jokes and shrinkage.
…like “it’s not the size that matters”…
Like a frightened turtle!
It was in the pool! It was in the pool!
Aha, 90s sitcom references. Good times
Reminds me of the time I called Donald Newhouse at home to ask if they were going tabloid. Apparently they weren’t. Lame.
“…especially when riding mass transit” BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Rag, die. (mostly for the Food Day’s you poop out and get tossed onto my porch)
Why does Bhatia always sound like he’s desperately trying to spin something devastating? It’s like he thinks we’re all too stupid to understand that the print journalism industry is fucked, so he wants to make it sound like these changes are for YOU, reader!
If a thousand trees fall in the forest, are pulped into paper and have the Oregonian printed on them, does anyone care?
The real transit-friendly adjustment would have been a switch to tabloid format, like the New York Daily News, Chicago Sun-Times, etc. Publisher Chris Anderson put a lot of weight behind a switch to tabloid, but got overruled. Embarrassing! I guess this is a half-measure.
If this keeps up they’ll have to give Doonesbury its own page.
Oregonian downsizing to one person who just copies articles from other websites http://pdxdailynews.com/2011/04/newspaper-…
So are they getting rid of the Edge column? That was the only worthwhile part of of the O.
Didn’t they already shrink the page size a couple years back?
My caged birds will now need better aim.
You still get Food Days ? The guy they pay to deliver them in the SE tosses most of them straight into the newspaper recycle box at SE47th and Stark.
@Graham —
The “new” Oregonian makes your hands look bigger.