Paperback Book-Format Newspapers

The New York Times really gets on my nerves, for reasons other than its jejune news analysis and recent dumbing down. It’s too big, which makes it difficult to read in a crowded subway, unless you resort to origami-style folding practices. It’s too noisy. My girlfriend reads it in bed when I’m trying to sleep and I have to listen to this infernal rustling noise. Hardly any stories appear on a single page; they’re always continued in some other section, so you have to hunt around and flip through it to finish reading the item. Then the pages wind up all misaligned, and that’s a drag.

My solution is newspapers in paperback book format. It’s small and quiet. The obvious reasons for not already having this format in place are 1) the prohibitive cost of binding, and 2) Advertisers like to run big, full-page ads. The present innovation, unfortunately, addresses neither of these obstacles. Am I forgetting any other problems with this?

But wait -- perhaps there’s some type of crappy, single-use binding means out there. Or maybe it could be printed accordion-style – folded up; that could be good. As far full-page ads go, I won’t miss them, although I do recognize that they’re a major revenue stream for newspapers.