Compact (newspaper)

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Newspaper sizes in August 2005. Le Monde is in the Berliner format. The Guardian is in the British broadsheet format (or was, until September 2005), whereas the Daily Mail is a tabloid, and The Times a "compact". Berliner Zeitung and Neues Deutschland are of sizes between broadsheet and Berliner. A piece of white A4 paper is placed in front for scale.

A compact newspaper is a British term referring to a broadsheet-quality newspaper printed in a tabloid format. The term came into use in its current form when The Independent began producing a smaller format edition for London's commuters, designed to be easier to read on the train/tube/bus.

Readers from other parts of the country liked the new format, with the result that The Independent introduced it nationally. Other newspapers (The Times and The Scotsman) copied the format as The Independent increased sales. All three newspapers are now printed exclusively in compact format following trial periods during which both broadsheet and compact version were produced simultaneously.

The term "compact" was coined in the 1970s by the Daily Mail when that newspaper went tabloid, although the Mail now calls itself a tabloid. It is often used to differentitate newspapers with more traditional content from those with a flamboyant or salacious publishing style, even though they may share the same size.

The Courier-Mail, the only daily newspaper in Brisbane, Australia, refers to itself as a "compact" since its change from a broadsheet format to the standard Australian tabloid size in 2006.