Columbus Dispatch switches to tabloid format

COLUMBUS (AP) — The Columbus Dispatch is introducing a smaller, tabloid-sized newspaper.

The Dispatch touts the redesigned tabloid product — cut down to 10 1/2-by-14 2/3 inches — as better organized, easier to navigate and easier for readers to handle.

The Dispatch says said the new format will allow for more photographs and fewer “jumps,” or stories that have to be continued on other pages. Pages are narrower and shorter than the broadsheet product, and it’s delivered to readers folded in half to roughly the size of a magazine.

The Dispatch’s circulation is about 142,000 daily and 265,000 on Sunday.

The Cincinnati Enquirer plans a similar format change this year and has reached an agreement with the Dispatch to print the newspaper. The Enquirer will close its Cincinnati printing plant.