The incredible shrinking newspaper

If you’re anything like me, your reaction to the newly “redesigned” versions of the Monday and Tuesday editions of The Telegraph which debuted a few weeks back was probably something along the lines of - “where’s the rest of it?”

I’m sure many readers were dismayed to find that their paper had been slimmed down to only two sections on those days. I was particularly disappointed to learn that the editorial section, which formerly consisted of a full page of columns and another page of letters to the editor, had been squeezed down a single page. But the worst was yet to come.

When Sunday rolled around and I pulled out the comics, I found that once again something was definitely missing. The regular six pages of funnies had been reduced by a third. All the same comics were still there, they had just been downsized to take up less space. They were now so compact that my over-40 eyes could not make out some of the text.

I was not pleased. It reminded me of the time a certain snack food manufacturer decided to cut costs by selling a smaller amount of potato chips in the same size bag at the same price. The whole thing seemed a little underhanded. It seemed like they were hoping that we wouldn’t notice the change, and therefore not change our buying habits. I understand that sometimes business realities demand that prices be raised, but I’d prefer that such changes were made in a more straightforward manner.

Nevertheless, I am not angry with The Telegraph or their parent company for making these changes. I know that the newspaper industry has fallen on hard times in recent years and they are desperately trying to stay afloat in an environment of rising production costs and falling revenues. Although I’m not an employee of the paper and therefore have no insight into how these kinds of decisions are made, I’d be willing to bet that they looked at a lot of different options for dealing with their financial woes and decided that a little nip here and tuck there was the best way to make their product a little more profitable without alienating too many customers.

Will it work? It’s hard to say. I am sure that some subscriptions will be cancelled over this, but I expect a lot of readers will do what I did – grumble a little about how they don’t like the changes but still leave their subscription in place. For now, at least.

I know that a lot of people have abandoned newspapers completely and now get their news from the Internet. It’s understandable, because you can get all the all the news any time of the day or night with a few strokes of the keyboard. And most of it is free. Still I find that there are things that I like about getting an old-fashioned newspaper delivered to my house every morning.

I spend a great deal of time staring at a computer monitor every day in my job, and my eyes appreciate the change of pace that scanning the newsprint provides. And you can’t beat a newspaper for convenience and portability. I can take it with me wherever I go, and I don’t have to worry about finding a power outlet or a Wi-Fi hotspot. Plus it won’t break into a hundred pieces if I drop it.

So I hope The Telegraph stays around for a long time, and I hope that is doesn’t have to continue reducing its content to stay afloat. But if they do have to make any more reductions, they should definitely stay away from those features that give the paper its unique identity and intrinsic value. Like this column, for instance.