In its 110th year of publication, the Austin Daily Herald will join hundreds of other newspapers throughout the country in reducing the width of its pages.

Saturday, January 27, 2001

In its 110th year of publication, the Austin Daily Herald will join hundreds of other newspapers throughout the country in reducing the width of its pages.

Beginning on Tuesday, March 6, 2001 the Austin Daily Herald’s pages will be reduced in width by one inch to 12.5 inches. With this move the Austin Daily Herald will join hundreds of other newspapers nationwide that are moving toward the narrow page size this year. Many newspapers within the immediate area have, or will, make the conversion this year, including the Minneapolis Star Tribune, St. Paul Pioneer Press, Owatonna People’s Press, Albert Lea Tribune, New Ulm Journal and USA Today.

"We feel the 25-inch web width will become the industry standard and we need to stay consistent for those customers purchasing advertising space in multiple publications," said Austin Daily Herald President and Publisher Neal Ronquist. "Readers have also expressed a preference for the new format because it is easier to handle. Finally, this change will allow us to reduce our use of newsprint without reducing the amount of space we allot for news."

In addition to the change to the narrower page width the Austin Daily Herald will also unveil design improvements.

"We appreciate our readers that count on us each and every day for the best local news coverage," Ronquist said. "These improvements will be made with our customers in mind and will result in an even better Austin Daily Herald."