Touring the New Three-Around Size

Some newspapers are abandoning daily home delivery, but The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch -- circulation: 142,000 daily, 265,000 Sunday -- shows no signs of following suit and believes its future lies in a new sub-tabloid format. Typically, newspapers significantly smaller than broadsheet are called tabloids, though tabloids generally are 17 by 11 inches, slightly larger than the three-around. Dispatch executives avoided using the term tabloid, likely because the name is associated with lurid and exaggerated journalism -- not what the steady but occasionally flashy Dispatch dispenses. The Dispach has also signed an agreement to publish The Cincinnati Enquirer and The Kentucky Enquirer in the three-around format beginning this fall. Dispatch.com will not exactly be "formatted" for young adult lives if it follows through with its plan to charge for access, but, as other newspapers are finding, it may be necessary for survival.