Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

The Guardian has followed the trend and will shift to a smaller format in the Autumn in a bid to appeal to young readers and commuters. I think it’s a good move. For all the talk of adapting to new media, one of the first things newspapers should do is examine their physical product.

Somebody made the point recently (sorry, can’t remember who off the top of my head) that trends like blogging and RSS aren’t going to wipe out newspapers overnight. Just try grasping your laptop, scrolling and holding onto a overhead bar on the DART, Metro or whatever the equivalent transport system in your country is.

By making the physical product smaller, the newspaper fits into its audience’s life much easier. In marketing terms it’s a no-brainer. The only thing about this story that confuses me is that the paper started blogging before making the switch to a smaller edition.