Spokesman-Review cuts down its size

So the Spokesman-Review cut down it's width again, by 1.5 inches, calling it a move to "a new, reader-friendly page size that has become the standard of the American newspaper industry."

Actually the standard of the American newspaper industry would be non-existent, but lets not celebrate the death of journalism just quite yet. The paper also said they were doing it to cut costs, add features and change some things around. At least they were honest with themselves.

I must say that the new size and format does look snazzy and actually works quite well in my hands. However, I can't help this nagging feeling that newspapers are just trying to survive instead of innovate and flourish. I mean how long before the Spokesman-Review cuts down more column space? Will it be reader-friendly when people are holding a newsletter?

Instead of just cutting down the size and adding sidebars, the newspaper industry needs a quick kick in the butt. If you really look at this redesign, fundamentally the Spokesman-Review has done nothing new. They haven't changed the paradigm. They're still not doing well financially. This might buy them some time but it wont change things.

Oh, and nevermind Mark Cuban basically solved the newspaper industry crisis weeks ago. Here's the link to his suggestion.

But newspapers would be much more inclined to lay people off and cut down paper size before they actually innovate their product. What a sad situation it is...