Paper size

Colleague of mine is a bit nervous. Her shop is changing paper size going from a broadsheet to something called Berliner. I told her that she's going to loose probably 1 1/4 in size but I'm not that familiar with it. Is there anyone out there who has worked on a berliner template and can give some basic advice about what can and can't be done with it. I'll definitely pass the information on. Thanks.

 

These guys are good at it...

 

Our shop went to a Berliner about a year and a half ago. It's basically a tall tab and you do lose some size, obviously, but with a lot of papers going to a more narrow width it isn't a monumental change. At first readers raised hell, but after about three months of getting used to it they calmed down. Those who dropped their subscriptions renewed them, and now it's business as usual.
The type size stays the same but of course you have to rethink agate. We run normal agate on the agate page and baseball agate on the baseball page, so you can still squeeze nfl, golf, racing, etc. on the traditional agate page. Readers just have to live without Slovenia Arm Wrestlling League standings.

 

I wonder how many broadsheets have narrowed to tab size? Baltimore did that, correct? Have any smaller papers went that route? I know my last paper is to the point where, if it cuts again, it'll be a tab.

Tabs are smaller, but more pages. How much money would a paper save by going from broadsheet to tab?

 

Thanks for the info WFL Nerd. I'll pass it along.
Slappy. Please mature. The comments on Journalism are usually serious and of a professional nature.

 

Supposedly going to a Berliner saves the paper $300,000 annually. Gotta make sure the corporate suits have enough money to dress nicely when they lay more of us off.

 

Our tab shrunk a bit about 18 months ago. Negligible difference. I think it was a good streamlining.

As for thickness, we had a 96-pager last Friday with about 25 full-page ads, maybe 30. We're definitely adding more pages because the ad department is dominating.

 

I prefer 1.25s myself. Much easier to work with.

Seriously.

 

I shared your information and my colleague said she doesn't see the savings. The paper is now going full color. Any savings with paper is now going into print.

 

Solid.