Media

Have you seen the Globe today?

by Dan Kennedy

It didn't take long for the howls of outrage to be heard. Last Friday, the Boston Globe took the first step toward changing the size and appearance of the paper by shrinking the body type. By Sunday, ombudsman Jack Thomas was making a rare weekend foray to his office to clear out his voice-mail account, which can hold only 150 calls. "If you've got a crisis so severe that you can get the ombudsman to come in on a Sunday, then you've got a crisis," says Thomas, who adds that he's also received well over 100 e-mails. And in case there's any doubt, Thomas makes it clear that his correspondents are "virtually unanimously opposed."

If you haven't been reading the daily front-page boxes headlined TO OUR READERS, here's what's going on. The Globe, like many papers nationally, is switching to a smaller format: pages will be 12¹/2 inches wide instead of the current 13¹/2 inches; the height will not change. Over the next seven months, the Globe's presses will be converted to accommodate the new width. In preparation for that, the Globe, starting on Friday, began printing a smaller page image to fit the new, narrower width. The idea is to save paper (and, thus, money), create an easier-to-handle product, and move to what is sure to become a new standard for national advertising.

Trouble is, the Globe, rather than readjusting its typography, simply shrank everything to fit. The result is what the paper officially describes as a "slight change," but what is in reality a dramatically noticeable shift to the microscopic. Not to worry, says Globe spokesman Rick Gulla: all will be fixed when the paper unveils a redesign, its first in 10 years, this fall. Which means that we'll all have to go blind -- or read the Globe on the Web -- for the next seven months. (Aside to Globe publisher Richard Gilman: the Herald's looking quite readable these days.)

The obvious question is, why didn't the Globe's redesign debut at the same time as the new, narrower image? The answer, says Gulla, is that the redesign hasn't been done yet. Okay, then why not hold off on the new format until the redesign is good to go? That, Gulla responds, has to do with difficulties in scheduling the crew from the Goss printing-press company, which is handling the seven-month conversion. Well, then, is there a possibility that the Globe will at least bump the type size up a half-point between now and Redesign Day? "This is a huge project," Gulla replies. "I don't know that we could switch horses in the middle of the stream, so to speak." Then, proving he's not above a little macho posturing, he reveals that he's had eye surgery, and he doesn't see what the big deal is. Well, excuse us.

Thomas says he doesn't have any trouble reading the smaller type either, but adds that he sympathizes with readers who are struggling -- many of them older people, who are among the Globe's most loyal customers. "Some people," he quips, "asked if we're in cahoots with the Mass. Association of Optometry."