Last Updated: October 18, 2000
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50-inch web
Winner: Maximize benefits
By Warren Watson
The Union-Tribune in San Diego converted to a 50-inch web in June.
Here are editor Karin Winner’s thoughts about process.
Q. What is the role of senior editor in the 50-inch web conversion
process?
A. To identify any necessary redesign elements due to the 50-inch web
width reduction, and to develop as much value-added material as possible
to offset the initial impact of readers having been the losers. To
buoy staff who believe this will stifle their ability to write longer,
meatier projects. To devise a strong communication plan walking up
to the official unveiling and through the conversion period. To orchestrate
a massive call back/write back procedure in response to all the comment/questions/complaints
coming in by phone, e-mail and letter.
Q. Why should the top editor care?
A. Because any change to a newspaper is unsettling for the reader, let
alone a change of this significance. When the size is altered, it
means other things are affected. Standard fare gets realigned, like
comics and crossword puzzles, two elements that provoke strong reactions
when something happens to them. For the reader, their newspaper is
one of the few things they can count on being reliable and consistent.
Like the furniture in their home, they count on things being where they
are used to finding them. Change that course and you create upheaval.
It’s so tied in to reader acceptance that the top editor better care or
major consequences could occur.
Q. What is the ideal process to follow?
A. There is no set formula. When it was decided that we were going to
convert to the smaller size, my senior editors and I met to talk about
ways to take advantage of the situation. It provided a perfect opportunity
to look at how we did things in the newspaper and to question whether it
could be done better.
Ease of use and readability became the driving forces of the redesign,
which I called a major ‘remodel,’ instead. The visual foundation
has been laid over the past five years ... this was an opportunity to get
consistency into the presentation and the packaging. After determining
what the look and feel of the redesigned elements should be, we then created
a back-out schedule for when everything needed to be finished and then
introduced into the paper. My rule of thumb was to ease the new elements
into the paper as unobtrusively as possible. We did it in phases,
a couple of weeks apart at a time. Two weeks prior to launch day,
I wrote a Sunday letter to the readers, followed by a shorter one the next
Sunday and a box on d-day two days later. We set up a reader hotline,
with a line for questions to be responded to and a line for general comments.
We gave them an e-mail address to write to as well. On Page A-2,
we have a box saying that we are undergoing this change and asking for
the readers to bear with us. We’ve had 900 calls, letters and e-mails and
it’s week three.
Q. What’s in it for readers?
A. The paper is easier to handle. Especially for commuters.
I told the readers they would now have room on their kitchen table to open
up their newspaper AND have a cup of coffee. From a content
perspective, we are writing more tightly. We are offering more briefs
which actually allows us to get more information into the paper.
We have made it easier to navigate through the paper, easier to get in
and out of the paper more quickly.
Q. Potential problems in news related to the change?
A. Agate in general is a problem. It was small to begin with,
let alone having to make it smaller. So Business and Sports pages
are taking a hit. The dialog in comics is harder to read and if we
go up in type size, a comic or two will need to be dropped. It’s
a question of which will anger the reader the least. Crossword puzzles:
the size of the boxes and the clues. Fixed pages, such as the editorial
pages, are being hit hardest, because they’re losing 5 percent in area
image and that means loss of content.
Q. Happy with the conversion so far?
A. Very much so. Some readers have even praised us for giving
them better quality in paper and inking and we haven’t changed either.
So there are residual gains.
Q. What did readers have to say?
A. Give us a magnifying glass with our subscription. Give us a
break on the subscription price because we’re getting less for our money.
About a third of the readers really like the size and format changes.
They find the paper more manageable (pages easier to turn), more stylized,
less overwhelming, better organized, ‘’as if you know who you are now.’’
