Tabloid, Compact Custom Newspapers

In "Tabloid or compact: who cares?" John Harrison (Online Opinion, 11 March 2013) looks at the change in the size of the printed Fairfax newspapers. As he points out the more significant change is the move to online news. However, the other part of the change is in the production process, with the gradual move to one virtual newsroom producing all the papers for one publisher. With this approach, Fairfax will produce essentially one newspaper, then be customized slightly inserting some local stories for Sydney and Melbourne readers to produce the Herald and Age.

New Tabloid Sydney Morning Herald Mobile Web Better

In conjunction with its move to a tabloid size print format, the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper also made changes to its website. I ran some routine tests which showed problems with the web format of the newspaper. However, there is also a mobile SMH website, which scores better on webtests:

1. W3C Markup Validation Service: 4 errors (down from 228 on the standard site). None of these errors is serious and are easily fixed.
2. W3C mobileOK Checker: Score of 75% (up from zero on the standard site) for mobile friendliness, with zero  critical (down from 4), 1 severe (down from 3) , 2 medium (down from3) and 3 low (down from 6) failures. In particular the size of the page has been reduced about 94% (down from 1.5Mbytes to 86Kbytes),  which is a boon for those paying for downloads on mobile plans.
3. AChecker Accessibility Review (Guidelines: WCAG 2.0 Level AA): 6 Known Problems (down from 29). However, there appears to be no alternative text for the link to the home page and as a result people who can't see the images would have difficulty navigating back from sub-pages to the home page of the site.

The web browsers on most smart phones and tablet computers don't identify themselves as "mobile" devices and so the standard website will be displayed by default. I could not see a link to the mobile version on the standard version.

New Tabloid Age Fails Web Tests

In conjunction with its move to a tabloid size print format, The Age newspaper also made changes to its website. Unfortunately, routine tests reveal some problems with the web format of the newspaper:

1. W3C Markup Validation Service: 238 Errors. None of these errors is serious and are easily fixed.
2. W3C mobileOK Checker: Score of 0 out of 100 for mobile friendliness (lowest possible score), with 4 critical, 3 severe, 2 medium and 7 low failures. This will make the site more expensive and harder to use on mobile devices.
3. AChecker Accessibility Review (Guidelines: WCAG 2.0 Level AA): 28 Known Problems. This could make the site harder to use for people with a disability and does not follow the Australian Human Rights Commission's World Wide Web Access: Disability Discrimination Act Advisory Notes.

These are consistent with results of tests run on the new Sydney Morning Herald.

New Tabloid Sydney Morning Herald Fails Web Tests

In conjunction with its move to a tabloid size print format, the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper also made changes to its website. Unfortunately, routine tests reveal some problems with the web format of the newspaper:

1. W3C Markup Validation Service: 228 Errors. None of these errors is serious and are easily fixed.
2. W3C mobileOK Checker: Score of 0 out of 100 for mobile friendliness (lowest possible score), with 4 critical, 3 severe,3 medium and 6 low failures. This will make the site more expensive and harder to use on mobile devices.
3. AChecker Accessibility Review (Guidelines: WCAG 2.0 Level AA): 29 Known Problems. This could make the site harder to use for people with a disability and does not follow the Australian Human Rights Commission's World Wide Web Access: Disability Discrimination Act Advisory Notes.