The New Era’s faithful readers can expect a new look in the newspaper next week.
We are planning to switch to a new format, which will result in a paper twice as thick, but seven inches less in depth and a column narrower than today’s edition.
To get an idea of what we’re talking about, turn this paper (folded shut) sideways and mentally add three inches along the top.
This change will not only make the paper easier to hold (less floppy) but will provide us with more color pages and less clutter on each page, as stories and advertisements will be spread out over more pages.
Another advantage, our printers tell us, is that the quality of printing on pages should be improved because the current format sometimes results in darker printing along the edges of pages.
This format is used by nearly every other weekly in our area, as well as the daily student newspapers at Oregon State University and the University of Oregon. Readers of those papers have made it quite clear to publishers that they like it.
For those who are wondering, the motive here isn’t financial; rather it’s a simple case of pros vastly outweighing the cons.
The bottom line is that nothing is changing as far as the contents of The New Era are concerned, though we will have to reorganize things a little since the pages will be smaller.
We hope to be able to use that extra space (the three inches mentioned earlier) to actually increase and improve our content.
– The Publishers