Guardian goes tabloid in cost-cutting exercise

The Guardian newspaper has come out in a simplified and smaller tabloid format in its Monday edition across all sections and supplements of the Guardian and the Observer.

Along with the print edition, the Guardian group has also rolled out a redesigned website with a new logo and font made available across mobile, apps and desktop.

Unveiled on Monday morning editions, the newspaper's smaller tabloid format has been rolled out across all sections and supplements of The Guardian and The Observer.

The leftist daily has downsized from its mid-size Berliner format to a smaller tabloid format while replacing its well-known blue and white masthead with simple black lettering.

The new format, which is part of a three-year plan aimed at saving millions of pounds for the Guardian News & Media (GNM), helping it to breaks even by 2019.

Monday's edition, which features the new tabloid look, carries an exclusive story urging medical students ''to volunteer as the NHS winter crisis worsens'', as well as a picture of US Army whistle-blower Chelsea Manning who is to run for the senate.

Editor-in-chief Katharine Viner described the new paper as ''bold, striking and beautiful'', adding that the money-saving move can ensure the future of the media organisation.

''Since we announced our plans to change format seven months ago, it's been an exhilarating period of creativity, imagination and focus, and I'm thrilled with the result: a new paper that feels bold, striking and beautiful, and still unmistakably The Guardian.

''Our move to tabloid format is a big step towards making The Guardian financially sustainable and ensuring we can continue to invest in agenda-setting journalism for generations to come,'' she added

The new design has ''readability at its heart'' GNM's executive creative director Alex Breuer said.

''At the forefront is the bold new masthead, which represents The Guardian's place and purpose in today's turbulent news agenda,'' he said.

The media group said its website, which currently attracts 150 million monthly unique browsers worldwide, will also undergo a redesign.

The revamp, which will also apply to The Observer, comes more than a decade after millions of pounds were spent on making the move from broadsheet.

The changes, announced last summer, will result in the closure of Guardian Media Group's (GMG) printing sites in Trafford, Manchester, and Stratford in east London.

Printing will instead be outsourced to presses run by Trinity Mirror, owner of the Mirror, Sunday Mirror and People tabloids, and see the newspapers printed in Scotland for the first time.