Did the Wall Street Journal shrink?

I’m a subscriber to the Wall Street Journal. The day after New Year’s, groggy in the early morning darkness, I pulled the paper from its plastic sleeve and was shocked by the new format. “They shrunk my newspaper!” Though teasers had plugged a new design coming, I had forgotten. The Chicago Tribune had shrunk a few years ago. The Tribune Company claimed to want it make it easier for readers to handle the paper, but even a book publisher would know they were saving on newsprint.

On my train ride downtown, I read the special Reader’s Guide to the new design. I felt a bit of a geek as we pulled into the station, and I was still reading the special section, the newspaper about the newspaper. From “Publishers Letter: Embracing Change to Build on a Tradition of Excellence” to “Managing Editor’s Letter: New Look Same Journal Quality: Exclusives, Analysis and Insights” to “The Relevance of Good Design,” I kept reading. The Publisher wrote, “You now get updated throughout the day from many different sources, print and online. . . . We’ve re-thought the role of a newspaper as well as what you seek online. Your expectations of media have shifted, making this an era when you expect us to embrace change.” All publishers are grappling with the Internet and repositioning their formats. You get your professional information from many different sources, and you also have expectations that we embrace change. We think about what content is appropriate for the book format. We look for other ways to get our content out to you. This blog is one step in that direction.