The tabloids are coming, the tabloids - er, make that "compacts"

Knight Ridder Chairman Anthony Ridder tells Katherine Seelye of the New York Times today that two or three of the chain's papers will soon go tabloid. The original thought was to do it in a few small markets with less risk, he says, but now the feeling is that there will be more bang for the buck in large markets.

He won't say which ones, but I'm putting money on Miami as one of them. Can you think of a better tabloid market? And maybe the Detroit Free Press? (The Philly Daily News is already a tab, so KR has some experience.)

But don't call them tabloids anymore. As designer Mario Garcia told the Times:
"Tab smells of down-market, of blood, sex and guts. You want to go to a compact. That makes you think of a small Mercedes, a small Jaguar."

Next, it'll be high tea and port sessions on the copy desk.

(K-R apparently isn't too worried about that image. The Philly D-N front it displays on its corporate Web site is the infamous picture of terrorists in Iraq about to behead a hostage, with the single-word hed: BASTARDS.)