Saturday Herald returning to broadsheet

ALBANY, Ga. — Beginning Saturday, The Albany Herald will return to a full-sized broadsheet for its Saturday editions.

“After several months of experimenting with a tabloid format on Saturday, we have decided to return to the more standard broadsheet model, effective this Saturday,” Albany Herald Publisher John Hetzler said Friday. “Although we had several positive comments (about the tabloid format), we also had as many negative comments from local readers.”

The Herald has continued to publish its other six editions each week on broadsheet. Hetzler also noted that the different size used for one day of the week required special handling, which contributed to the decision to return to the larger size.

The larger size will also enable the newspaper to be published in two sections on Saturdays, allowing readers to separate the sports/classified section from the news and features section. The tabloid format could only be printed as a single section.

Hetzler said the conversion to the tabloid on Saturdays was an attempt to gauge whether readers would prefer that format.

“Like any company seeking growth, we try different things from time to time,” he said. “We now know that a tabloid format is not what the market in general wants each day.”