Today, the New York Times is a little more bikini-ready, having just trimmed its pages by an inch and a half to a svelte 12-inch, apparently the "industry standard" for broadsheets (according to "newspaper officials" per the NYO). No doubt the newpaper will still be fat with reading pleasure and stories about poor, poor millionaires.

The Wall Street Journal and USA Today have both trimmed its page sizes, the WSJ with a significant redesign at the rollout. Though back in May, NYT executive editor Bill Keller pledged there would be "no dramatic makeover of our design," the move does necessitate the "reduction of the newshole" by a reported 5% (per Keller at a May 2007 staff meeting) to 11% (per an NYT memo in June; the discrepancy is explained by the NYO, which notes that the overall cut in size would trim 11% but extra pages added will make that up by 6% — so everybody's right!). On yesterday's front page, the paper heralded the move, reassuring readers that "slight modifications in design will preserve the look and texture of The Times, with all existing features and sections, and somewhat fewer words per page."

Those fewer words per page will be siphoned off via the magic of the jump (which makes reading on the subway even easier!), more rigorous editing (as warned in May and confirmed in today's NYO item), and reduction in the letters page and op-ed contributors (bad luck for Jane Smiley and scrappy college students; good luck for Times columnists, including the public editor, who will remain untouched). Overflow will find a home in the magical, constraint-free world of the internet.

Lean Times [NYO]
Honey, They Shrunk The Times [E&P]

Alternative perspective:
Shrinkage At The New York Times Means Less Liberal Propaganda [NewsBusters]

Related in Hat-Tip Headlinery:
It's The Papers That Got Small! [Gawker]

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