“Dawn of a new era” was the phrase emblazoned on every news stand in Sydney yesterday morning. Fairfax issued their first ever copies of the new ‘compact’ format (commonly known as ‘tabloid’ format, though Fairfax has attempted to separate itself from negative connotations and its competitors by coining this new term) which will replace the traditional broadsheet SMH. At Southern Cross station in Melbourne’s CBD, Fairfax’s marketing team strategically placed an actual newspaper crier, proclaiming to all morning commuters that they can ‘roll up, roll up and get ‘The Age’”.
Cleverly enough, SMH has published a comment article from both Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott praising the new format, and so far, the change has been generally praised by the Average-Joe, receiving compliments such as ‘it will be a lot easier to manage on the train’, and ‘they should have made this change years ago’. Yet some newspaper 'traditionalists' have taken to Facebook to air their complaints. Pat Johnston posted on SMH’s Facebook page "A headline like ‘Brangelina to adopt another child’ can fill up the entire front page. Your size shrank, like your standard of journalism."
Fairfax CEO Greg Hywood says the size change is a response to reader feedback, and that this is a new ‘modern format, for modern times’. However, Eric Beecher (former editor for the SMH) rejects the claim that this is anything but a thinly veiled attempt to boost sales and subscriptions as newspaper sales dwindle everywhere due to the inevitable shift to news online. 80 or so newspapers in other parts of the world have made the same shift – only to find that it did not boost sales on a long-term basis.
The internet has caused significant problems for all newspapers – news is now widely accessible (and updateable) online, at any time day or night. This is steadily making the traditional newspaper irrelevant in today’s society. To someone like myself -a journalist-in-the-making- this is a scary thought, but it has been a fact of life in the media for a long time. One day, maybe not too far away, the newspaper will die. The downsize from broadsheet to compact is just one more nail in the coffin of the terminally-ill newspaper.
Only time will tell if the change to the new, 64 page format will have long term positive effects. Will advertisers stick with it? Will Fairfax’s Journalists will be able to keep up with the pace? For now, I’m just glad I don’t have to do this on the train anymore
References:
http://www.crikey.com.au/2013/03/04/the-verdict-is-in-as-fairfax-goes-compact-smh/?wpmp_switcher=mobile http://www.smh.com.au/comment/taking-on-change-but-staying-true-to-quality-journalism-20130303-2fe9z.html http://www.smh.com.au/comment/struggling-journal-became-a-great-newspaper-of-record-20130303-2fe9x.html http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-business/advertisers-watching-fairfax-compact-debut-20130304-2fg0o.html?skin=text-only
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1742954/Readers-praise-compact-Fairfax-papers
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