KR Considers 'Miami Herald' for Tabloid Switch

By: Jennifer Saba The guessing game started in March, when Knight Ridder CEO Tony Ridder announced that his company plans to turn a handful of its metro broadsheets into tabloids: Which papers would be the first to switch? At this week's American Society of Newspaper Editors convention in Washington, there's buzz around a top contender: The Miami Herald.

"Are we looking at it? Absolutely," Herald Publisher Alberto Ibarg?en told E&P from Miami. But he cautioned that no decisions have yet been reached.

Ibarguen said that that options under consideration include moving the entire Herald to tab size, moving just part of the paper, or retaining the broadsheet paper and starting a free tab. Ibarg?en has kept an eye on the United Kingdom, where papers like The Independent and The Times of London transitioned from a broadsheet to a tabloid, he said.

"I need to emphasize that no decision has been made," Ibarguen said, adding that no formal plans have been presented to Knight Ridder. Before anything happens, an internal committee would need to address which options would fit the market while developing a business strategy. "We're not there yet," he said.

The Herald previously considered a move to tabloid size when planning its recent redesign, E&P reported in a June 2004 cover story. Production constraints prevented a wholesale switch, but the paper nevertheless changed its daily "Tropic" feature section into a tab.

Knight Ridder's Vice President of Corporate Relations Polk Laffoon would not confirm if Miami is a potential test market. ?When we have something to announce, we'll announce it,? he told E&P today. ?We're not going to just get rid of the broadsheet and put out a tab. We're going to do a test. It won't be that dramatic."

Knight Ridder isn't the only company mulling format changes. During a conference call with analysts yesterday, Douglas McCorkindale, Gannett's chairman, president, and CEO, said that his company is "experimenting, but slowly and carefully."

Gannett mentioned the upcoming conversion of its paper in Lafayette, Ind., the Journal and Courier, to a Berliner format -- a compact-sized page that can be designed to look like a smaller broadsheet. But McCorkindale cautioned that any quick change could upset the readership: "Keep in mind, folks think it's their paper. We need to be careful not to alienate older readers."