The Great Tabloid Gamble; As yet Another Venerable Broadsheet Title Goes Tabloid, Steven Vass Asks If the Backroom Numbers Game Really Adds Up

Summary

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IT is nearly a year since The Independent launched its compact edition and kicked off the biggest newspaper shake-up in a decade. But one look at the newsstands will tell you that the industry is still deeply divided over whether to follow suit.

From tomorrow The Scotsman will become the second broadsheet to go fully compact, but Scotsman Publications is unlikely to be much more confident than anyone else. When Andrew Neil, the group's publisher, said last week that there were provisions for losing (pounds) 900,000 in annual profits, he gave us a taste of the pitfalls behind the move.

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Extract

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The Great Tabloid Gamble; As yet Another Venerable Broadsheet Title Goes Tabloid, Steven Vass Asks If the Backroom Numbers Game Really Adds Up

The big attraction of going compact is that it is seen as a means of turning around the sales decline and the lack of new younger readers that has bedevilled the industry in recent years. Research has shown that many readers, particularly younger ones, prefer handling smaller papers, especially if they are commuting. The logic is that stabilising or raising sales boosts circulation revenues, and the higher the ...

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