Post-Record new look coming next week

OK, I’m going to level with you up front, dear reader. This column may not contain the most fascinating news you’ve read in your Post-Record for a while.

No, it’s not going to rank up there with the stories about the great success the Washougal and Camas girls’ sports programs had this past weekend, or this week’s Hometown front page story. Heck, even a City Council story will probably seem fascinating compared to what I’m about to write about.

But in a nutshell there’s a format change in your community newspaper coming next week in the Jan. 24 issue. And when there is a change in our business, especially one that has so many positive sides like this one, we get excited and want to tell you about it.

Simply put, the pages of Post-Record will become narrower by a little more than an inch and half starting next week. The newspaper will remain a six column broadsheet format, but the columns will be narrower too.

To many of us here at the Post-Record it’s a positive new look. But other than an improvement in appearance, very little else will change.

You will still get the most in-depth news about Camas and Washougal published anywhere. That includes people features, schools and sports news, business news, and yes those lovely City Council stories that I believe are important for us to read, even if the subject matter is a bit dry.

So why are we making these changes?

Well, for starters, most readers elsewhere have indicated they prefer the narrower format, saying it makes newspapers easier to read and carry. Also, most other major newspapers and a growing number of weekly newspapers have already converted to the narrower width.

The narrower width will reduce our newsprint consumption, which ultimately helps decrease our use of natural resources.

Finally, to be completely honest, reducing consumption will help us reduce our newsprint costs, one of our biggest expenses. Yet we will still publish roughly the same amount of community news every Tuesday that we always have.

For those of you with eagle eyes when it comes to the current format, you may notice a couple of new news type and headline fonts that you haven’t seen before. There may be a couple more surprises, all good of course, in the new format. We’d love it if you would e-mail or call and tell us what you think, when the paper hits the streets next Tuesday.

But if we don’t hear from you, frankly we won’t be surprised. Newspapers in most communities that have made this change, have received very little feedback from their readers.

Just pardon us, for now, if we’re just a little bit excited about the changes coming next week.