Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.
Hey, check us out, we have a new size and layout.
I don’t know how many readers out there actually give a dang about our new dimensions, but I suppose I should explain them to those who do care.
It’s like this: efficiency favors standardization. In some ways, that’s the theory that fuels the entire Industrial Age.
Most tabloid-size newspapers around the United States have gone to the size that you are now holding in your hand. Assuming you’ve stumbled across some of the supplements in the other news media hereabouts, these dimensions probably feel vaguely familiar.
So, as you can see, it all boils down to money. Our press, the Paradise Post, promised to charge us less money to print our newspaper and to give us more color and later deadlines, if we’d only change our size a little bit. Since the change to the new size was going to lose us a little acreage, the crack News & Review production team—mostly David Jayne and Andrea Diaz—went into overtime mode to come up with a design that would conform to the new size but would still look good and, most importantly, would not cut into our word count.
I think the news is good. We didn’t lose a single word—we increased word count in some places—we have more color opportunities, the boss is getting the paper printed for less money, and you didn’t lose a bit of depth in the stories.
Along other lines, but still within the theme of change, Deidre Pike is back as news editor. I don’t want to say, ‘I told you so’ to anyone, but the freelance-writing gig isn’t all glamour and fame. I’m glad to have her back; the office feels homier with her around, and it’s going to be great to have the in-house help.