A big change is coming for your hometown newspaper.
Starting in the last week of October, Mid-America Publishing’s newspapers will be slimming down from their current 25-inch width pages to a new 22-inch page.
The process of transitioning to a different width of paper has been a long journey for the company, as coordinating the change for 22 individual newspapers requires a lot of advanced preparation.
“This width change has been in the works for about seven years now,” said Mid-America Publishing’s CEO Matt Grohe. “Every major paper in the state and country has adopted the narrower width and most store racks are designed for it, so it was time for us to switch to the narrower format.”
The thinner pages will have immediate benefits for Mid-America Publishing’s bottom line, allowing the company to reduce the overall amount of paper they consume on a weekly basis. Using slimmer sheets of paper also means using fewer resources to print on them, reducing the overall amount of metal used to create the plates that print each page of every newspaper.
“It’s going to be a cost saving factor for the company all the way around,” said Press Manager Mike Enzenauer. “You wouldn’t think three inches of paper makes a lot, but it does.”
In times where economic and environmental concerns are at the forefront of people’s minds, reducing the amount of resources used to produce tens of thousands of newspapers every week, and transport them across the state and country, checks two important boxes.
The new 22-inch width will also open up new advertising opportunities for the company. As major newspapers across the country have transitioned to the thinner pages over the years, national advertising standards have adjusted with them. Printing at the new industry standard will allow Mid-America Publishing to sell advertisements that previously wouldn’t be available.
For the readers themselves, the new width should make the newspaper a little easier to handle in both physical and digital formats. For those that read the newspaper on a digital device, the thinner width should improve readability as the full width of the paper will fit more easily on a screen.
“I am very excited about the change to our web width,” said Mid-America Publishing President Toni Venteicher. “Besides being a much easier paper to handle, this platform will be a very easy read for our loyal consumers on our mobile friendly websites.”
“We feel that the paper will be easier to hold when reading and better lend itself to half-folding for readers,” said Grohe. “We hope everyone enjoys the new format and we appreciate the support of our readership as we adapt and change.”
