Narrow broadsheets still on the agenda

David Kirk has told journalists in May what GXpress readers already know ... that narrower broadsheets for ‘The Age’ and the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ aren’t off the agenda, just harder than the Fairfax Media chief executive had thought. Without naming a new date to replace the early 2008 originally mentioned, he said the original timeline was unrealistic and that presses for the ‘Canberra Times’ now had to be factored into the equation. Considerations included the amount of revenue tied up in newspapers, the level of complexity for printing presses, use of spare press time, and advertisers’ needs. Three double-width plants print broadsheets as well as tabloids products, with the older MAN Colorman in Chullora understood to be the most complicated to change. Web-width changes are easier on the double-width press in Albury, and easier still on the new Goss Uniliner being installed at Ormiston in Brisbane. In the briefing with deputy chief executive Brian McCarthy, he denied Fairfax was about to extend into the Indian newspaper market. gx