Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Tabloid Newspapers Take Over The World!

Everyone reported on the recent newspaper circulation report, with most everyone -- like the NYT -- focusing on the battle royal between the NY Post (which finally passed the Daily News in total circulation) and the NY Daily News (which is still the #1 newspaper in the NY area and isn't selling for a quarter).

But what has gone mostly unnoticed is the simple fact that those two tabloids are the ONLY newspapers in the Top 25 in the country to show a gain in circulation. This should inspire more papers to switch to the tabloid format. It's certainly more convenient for people commuting to work and easier to handle. There's also no reason to think that flipping the paper on its side means it's less "classy" or can't handle in-depth reporting. In London, when the major newspapers introduced new tabloid versions, they invariably saw a huge spike in sales. Now, almost every paper there (and London is the newspaper capitol of the world) comes in both or tabloid only formats. Surely with two tabloids bucking the trend of downward circulation, it's only a matter of time before US newspapers wake up and make the switch.

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