Fairfax Media's metro mastheads The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) and The Age will be broadsheets no more as of March next year, moving to tabloid size while the company looks to roll out paywalls around its digital assets.
The plan also sees digital subscriptions will also be introduced for the SMH and The Age.
It will be rolled out as a “metered model” in the first quarter of next
year, although a “base level” of free access to Fairfax's suite of
websites would remain.
As part of the Fairfax of the Future plan, the first tabloid-sized editions of both mastheads will hit newsstands on 4 March 2013. Fairfax stated in a media release that the resize would provide a “more reader-friendly” format that will not affect editorial standards or existing content.
This is not the first time Fairfax has announced plans to shift the SMH and The Age to a “compact” size. In 2007, the publisher stated it would shrink both broadsheets by 16%, although the plans were later dumped.
An extensive restructure of editorial functions across print, digital and mobile platforms will also occur, granting “increased flexibility with the greater sharing of editorial content across geographies and across platforms.”
Fairfax declined to comment further at this time.
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