Malta Independent’s print U-turn after three years of Berliner

The Malta Independent has undergone yet another radical change in a bid to cut its daily printing costs.

Just three years since it heralded a momentous decision to increase its newspaper's size to the larger Berliner format, against all established trends, the Indy has now resized its daily newspaper to a smaller size than the tabloid.

The Indy is printed by one of its major shareholders, Miller. Back in October 2010, described as "a historic month" by managing editor Stephen Calleja, Standard Publications became the first company to print a Maltese newspaper in the larger, Berliner format.

While overseas newspapers were cutting costs by reducing paper size - from broadsheet to Berliner for the Guardian, and down to tabloid for the Times of London - the Indy went big.

Yet, three years down the line, another historic day has been visited upon Standard Publications, this time taking printing costs down by shrinking its Berliner newspaper to a size smaller than tabloid - the ever-smaller 'Norwegian tabloid', measuring 280mm by 400mm, just 30mm less than the standard tabloid size.

This is in fact the reason why both In-Nazzjon, the PN's daily organ, and The Malta Independent now have the same size: In-Nazzjon is printed at Miller because Progress Print (printers of the Allied Newspapers Groups) has outsourced its printing there.

In fact, all that Calleja promised three years ago with his Berliner has now been halved: in 2010 he said the Malta Independent will give readers two leaders, and now it has one; and that it will include bigger photos, for which now it has less space.

The second sensible change was aligning the design of its daily newspaper, whose Aachen font headlines are the same as the MaltaToday masthead, with that of its Sunday newspaper. The Sunday edition now takes the more modern design of its daily issue.

Standard Publications said this was part of creating a "more unified brand", while saying that its daily edition will be printed in full colour on recycled paper with water based inks "in a reflection of our environmental ethos, which we firmly believe in."

It recently welcomed former Nationalist Party president of the administrative council, Pierre Portelli, as its new head of media.

Standard Publications is owned by a wide array of major businessmen. Its main shareholder is the holding company R.S.T Limited, which is owned by C.H. Bartolo (shareholders AB Holdings, LCM Ltd, NAB Ltd, Research Ltd); Calpe Associates (owned by the Miller Group); and First Gemini plc (a shareholder in Midi plc).