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September 1, 2005updated 22 Nov 2022 4:41pm

Radical Guardian Berliner-size relaunch confirmed for September 12

By Press Gazette

Dominic Ponsford
The Guardian has
confirmed Monday, September 12, as the date for its long-awaited
relaunch in the untried mid-size Berliner format.
The move means the Guardian will be the only
national printed on Berliner-size presses – making it in between
current broadsheet and tabloid formats.
It also means the Guardian will be the first UK national available in full colour.
Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger said: “The challenge for us was to
remain true to our journalism, now attracting a record worldwide audience
online, while at the same time finding a modern print format for a new
generation of readers in this country.
“We believe we’ve found it with the Berliner
format, which combines the portability of a tabloid with the
sensibility of a broadsheet. We’re confident that this will be a
successful
new step on the Guardian’s long and distinguished journey, and will
strengthen still further the Guardian’s reputation for serious,
trusted, independent journalism.”
Guardian newspapers chief executive Carolyn McCall said: “This is
a historic moment for the Guardian. With this bold move we will have the
most modern and vibrant newspaper in the country alongside the best online
newspaper in the world. No other newspaper is so well placed to address the
print and internet needs of both readers and advertisers.
“No other newspaper group has ever achieved the building of a new print centre and
the installation of new presses in just 12 months. The editorial ambition,
the commitment and the energy shown by every one of our staff, has been
phenomenal.”
The Guardian re-launch comes as the paper has
suffered its worst circulation decline in decades in the face of
competition from the tabloid-size Independent, launched in September
2003, and the tabloid Times, launched in November of the same year.
Last month The Guardian fell to its lowest sale
since June 1978 at 358,345 (down 3.44 per cent year-on-year) well below
its previously rock-solid 400,000 benchmark.
The new look paper has been “redesigned from scratch” according to The Guardian.
The paper promises that its full-colour news section will “set new standards for
the use of photography and graphics, and will contain the most
authoritative national, international and financial news”.
There is to be a new daily science page, a new economics section and expanded comment and letters sections.
Former Times and London Evening Standard editor Simon Jenkins starts
the first of his new twice-weekly columns on Wednesday, September 14.
Among the most radical innovations in the new-look paper is the current tabloid second section G2,
It will now be half-Berliner sized, stiched and described as the UK’s first daily newsprint magazine.
There will also be a new separate daily
full-colour sports section which will be at least 12 pages Tuesday to
Friday and bigger on Mondays and Saturdays,
The various G3 specialist sections will be expanded from tabloid to
full Berliner size with Media Guardian still on a Monday, Education
Guardian on a Tuesday, Society Guardian on a Wednesday and a new
Technology Guardian on a Thursday. On Friday, the Review section has
been renamed Film and Music.
Saturday Guardian has also been given a thorough
revamp. It includes a new eight-page Family section and a new
separate Work and Money section to replace Jobs and Money.
Berliner size measures 470mm by 315mm and the paper will be sold folded like a broadsheet.
The new-look Guardian has been created by an
in-house team led by Creative Editor Mark Porter using an exclusive new
typeface – Guardian Egyptian.

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