WSJ switches to smaller format

The Wall Street Journal will become the latest newspaper to move to a smaller format, with a redesign by editorial designer Mario Garcia.

The new Berliner format paper, which will launch on January 2, aims to offer a fresh outlook, to appeal to readers who are increasingly getting news from multiple sources and channels. It will be about 8cm narrower, which will mean that many stories will be shorter, and fewer will jump to the inside of the newspaper, although the journal will still highlight long-form stories.

Navigation tools have been created to point readers to related stories inside the paper and on-line, while the typography for headlines has been changed to an enhanced version of the Retina font.

In addition, a soft colour has been introduced, which will be used repeatedly throughout the design.

The redesign takes on a different format to the Wall Street Journal international edition, which was also designed by Garcia and rolled out in November 2005. It needed to be longer because it had to accommodate the newspaper’s four daily sections.

Garcia says, ‘It will be a more attractive, more contemporary package to attract readers, so people are always connected between the paper and on-line, which is the future. Newspapers are not going to die, but will simply modify how they present the news. The format has been designed so it can be followed up and enhanced on a day-to-day basis’.

The move follows the decision by several major newspapers to cut their size in recent years, including The Times, The Independent and The Guardian in the UK, and the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and USA Today in the US. The New York Times is planning to reduce its width in 2008.

Garcia, who founded Garcia Media, has worked with over 450 news organisations, including Die Zeit, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Guardian sister paper The Observer.