Chicago Tribune to Offer Tabloid for Street Sales

Chicago Tribune management announced yesterday that the newspaper will offer a tabloid-size newspaper during the week for single sales. The edition, aimed at commuters, will have all the same content as the broadsheet.

Mark Fitzgerald of Editor & Publisher writes:

Chicago Tribune Editor Gerould W. Kern says the decision to launch a single-copy tabloid version of the newspaper is a continuation of the risk taking that led to its bold redesign three months ago.

The Chicago Tribune on Monday will replace its broadsheet Mondays through Fridays with a tabloid edition that will be sold at all outlets where the broadsheet is now available.

"We said we were going to be more daring, bolder and going to take some risks," Kern said in an interview. "We said we were going to be more reader-focused about what we did, and we meant it, and we think we delivered on that."

The tabloid version will contain all the content of the broadsheet, Kern said, so stories will not be cut to fit the smaller page. "It's the same content in a different shape -- it's as simple as that," he said. "The tabloid is half the size of the broadsheet, so it will have roughly double the number of pages. There's going to be no impact on length."