US paper cut to European size

Europe's Berliner format appeals to US paper magnates

Gannett, the biggest newspaper publisher in the US, has followed the lead of European titles and launched a paper in the mid-size Berliner format.

Berliner is used by the UK's Guardian, France's Le Monde, Italy's La Repubblica and Spain's La Vanguardia.

Now Indiana's Journal and Courier (J&C) has been redesigned and relaunched from a purpose-built $24.1m (£12.9m) plant.

Gannett has 90 daily titles across the US, so a successful trial could see the format rolled out more widely.

A previous Gannett experiment - to reduce the width of pages by about 1.5 inches (3.75cm) - is now so widely copied that even the New York Times is set to switch to narrower pages.

Brighter pages

The new-look J&C will fit the Berliner size, halfway between a broadsheet and a tabloid, and offer more than twice as many pages in colour.

Gannett said it had seized on the opportunity to experiment with Berliner when it needed to replace the J&C printing press.

Despite its name, the Berliner format is not used by any papers in Germany's capital.

Still, its proponents suggest it could prove a life-saver for titles in many languages which are under threat from the internet.

Online threat

Use of the internet to access news has rocketed in the US over the past decade, the influential Pew Research Center reports.

A Pew study released on Sunday reveals that one in three US citizens uses the web for news today, as opposed to one in 50 in 1996.

Online readership is growing rapidly among the 35-49 age group, Pew said. This mirrors a long-term decline in US newspaper circulation.

The Pew survey offered comfort to Gannett. Its own USA Today website is the most popular newspaper site along with that of the New York Times.