By: The Chicago Sun-Times debuted a smaller edition Tuesday, following in the footsteps of scores of other newspapers that are scaling back the size of their publications.
The revamped tabloid, published by Sun-Times Media Group (nyse: SVN - news - people ) Inc., is about 12-inches tall, roughly an inch shorter than its earlier editions.
Spokeswoman Tammy Chase said the change is part of the media company's efforts to trim operating costs by $50 million this year.
The move comes at a time when broadsheet publications are adopting a 12-inch-wide format, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post (nyse: WPO - news - people ) and the Los Angeles Times.
Because the Sun-Times is a tabloid, its height is comparable to a broadsheet newspaper's width.
Converting to the more standard size makes it easier to sell ads, increasingly important as newspaper publishers look for ways to save money amid slumping ad revenue, declining circulation and a loss of readers.
The ailing newspaper publisher is particularly vulnerable, and executives earlier this month announced plans to lay off 35 workers from the newsroom of the city's second-largest daily after the Chicago Tribune.
Chase said Tuesday that the Sun Times Media Group, which also owns dozens of smaller area newspapers, plans to lay off five newsroom employees at the Lake County News-Sun and cut 11 jobs at its community Pioneer Press publications.
The company already had said it would lay off 31 editorial employees of the Tinley Park-based Daily Southtown after combining the paper with its Star publications to create the SouthtownStar.
Shares of the Sun-Times Media Group fell 3 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $2.01 in trading Tuesday.
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