Some readers grumble prior to IndyStar’s new look

The Indianapolis Star today increases the type size in stories, one of several changes being phased in, says editor Dennis Ryerson.

Along with that will be a reduction in page width, “a change so modest that focus groups of readers…didn’t even recognize the change until we told them,” he adds.

Photos and headlines will be proportionately smaller and “we also will edit the newspaper to provide more ‘depth’ stories of national and international importance,” promises the editor.

Changes will be phased in section by section.

While readers with blinking, squinty eyes should welcome the larger type on pages, some already are grumbling over the changes before they appear, notes Grumpy Editor. 

One reader on the IndyStar.com Web site complains that “it was just a few years ago that you downsized the width of the paper, making less space available, and now you are doing it again.”

Another cites “so much space wasted on photographs,” referring to large front-page art.

With the reduction in page size, another reader asks how much the subscription will be reduced to reflect the change.