The Shrinking NY Times

The loss of readers is starting to be felt at the NY Times, and the paper will be making some significant changes to reduce costs:

The New York Times Co. (NYT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) plans to narrow the size of its flagship newspaper and close a printing plant, resulting in the loss of 250 jobs, the company said in a story posted on its Web site late on Monday.

The changes, set to take place in April 2008, include the closure of a printing plant in Edison, New Jersey. The company will sublet the plant and consolidate its regional printing facilities at a plant in Queens, the paper said.

The newspaper will be narrower by 1 1/2 inches. The redesign will result in the loss of 250 production jobs, the company said.

The New York Times said it expected the changes to result in savings of $42 million.

The narrower format, offset by some additional pages, will reduce the space the paper has for news by 5 percent, Executive Editor Bill Keller said in the article.

The smaller paper will also mean less work for the leakers who have been feeding the paper a constant stream of secret government anti-terror programs. It'll also mean that the Times will have less space in which to just make stuff up. This could be a good thing.

They may have to change their motto. Instead of "all the news that's fit to print", it'll have to be "all the news that fits our print".