The gossipy broadsheet the New York Observer was always known as a sort of upmarket tabloid—but it might start looking like one, too. New owner Jared Kushner, 25, confirms that it’s being redesigned. “We’re considering tabloid, and we’re considering Berliner [a format used by Le Monde and the Guardian],” he says. The tab format, Kushner noted, is “an easier read.” Plus “it appeals to a more feminine audience.” Media consultant Greg Oehler says one “urban myth” is that female readers prefer tabloids over broadsheets because, in general, they have shorter arms than men and are reluctant to extend their arms outward past their shoulders to read. That’s never been proved, he says, but the “consumer psychographic” of tabloids is that they’re easier to carry and flip through—and, of course, cheaper to print.

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• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by Geoffrey Gray
• Table of Contents: December 4, 2006 issue of New York | Subscribe!