The Incredibly Shrinking Tab: 'New York Post' Is Slowly Getting Smaller

By: Joe Strupp If the New York Post appears smaller to you, that's because it is. Well, depending on where and when you bought it.

During the past two weeks, the News Corp. tabloid has been slowly reducing its size by about an inch and a half. Previously, the paper was 13-and-a-half inches high and about 11-and-a-half inches across.

The smaller size measures up at 12-inches high and about a half-inch smaller across. At first glance it looks almost square.

But even as recently as today, not all copies of the paper had undergone the reduction.

The cutback in size first occurred on April 21, according to spokeswoman Suzanne Halpin, who offered no information about why the reduction was done or how much money it saved. Post officials even declined to reveal how many papers had been reduced thus far and there appears to have been no explanation published for readers.

"Just like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, the NY Post will be making the size of the daily paper slightly smaller effective tomorrow," Halpin said in a statement to the New York Times' City Beat blog on April 21, which she sent to E&P today.

But, since then, the smaller Post's have been seen in only certain locations. As recently as last Friday, copies delivered to E&P's offices at The Nielsen Company were the previous size. But those delivered today were considerably smaller.

Copies published under the older size were still being found in some locations Monday, including in New Jersey.

Calls to News Corp. and the Post were referred to Halpin, who had no further comment.