Fairfax has launched its new compact formats for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age this morning with a giveaway for some commuters at transport hubs.
However, News Limited has also gone on the offensive taking outdoor executions for its Sydney Telegraph and Melbourne Herald Sun mastheads showing a mock-up of the front pages.
They have also enlisted extra vendors to help pass out more copies of the papers in the metropolitan areas.
Fairfax’s overhaul extends to the online versions, including the websites and tablet editions, have also been updated to deliver a more attractive experience for readers.
Visitors to the sites are treated to a 90-second video explaining the changes.
The editions handed out at transport hubs were in a “cover-wrap” sleeve from launch sponsors BMW, which has taken the advertising across the entire paper.
Today’s SMH front page has an evocative image of a sunrise proclaiming “A new dawn”, along with a column on page two from editor-in-chief Sean Aylmer explaining the rationale behind the conversion.
Fairfax is keen to stress the line “nothing else is going to change but the size”,
A News Limited spokesperson said its new campaign has been “created to promote our journalism and reinvigorate consumer perception of newspapers”.
“It sees the daily front page of News’ mastheads in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane displayed across almost 350 outdoor sites across the eastern seaboard.
“This is one of many executions we have planned over an eight week period. The campaign has been many months in the making and we’re excited to be rolling it out.”
