By: LAURENCE FROST, AP Business Writer (AP) French daily newspaper Le Monde launched its first major editorial redesign in a decade Monday, hoping bigger photos, more color, larger typefaces and less text will stem its circulation decline.
The changes to the highbrow, center-left evening paper are part of a fierce battle for readers and advertisers being waged by traditional newspapers against online news and free morning papers -- now thrust into commuters' hands in many of the world's big cities.
"Yesterday, it was often said that newspapers controlled their readers," Le Monde's publisher, Jean-Marie Colombani, wrote in an editorial published Monday.
"Nowadays these same readers have huge freedom of choice, and even the opportunity to make their own voices heard, thanks to the development of the Internet."
Many respected titles have already joined a global industry shift toward easier-to-read layouts and more portable formats. Some magazines have also downsized, hoping that more compact editions can help prevent the feared exodus to portable devices.
Many of Britain's broadsheet dailies have shrunk their pages over the last two years, culminating with the Guardian's September switch to the so-called Berliner size -- in between the unwieldy broadsheet and 'compact' tabloid formats -- a step that Le Monde took years ago.
The changes introduced Monday are intended to make Le Monde more accessible still, with one well-illustrated, substantial story per page instead of two or three and larger text.
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