Berliner (format) - European Newspapers

European Newspapers

The Berliner format is used by many European newspapers, including dailies such as Le Monde in France, Le Temps in Switzerland, La Repubblica and La Stampa in Italy, El País and El Mundo in Spain, De Morgen, Le Soir and Het Laatste Nieuws in Belgium, Mladá fronta Dnes and Lidové noviny in the Czech Republic, and (since 12 September 2005) The Guardian in the United Kingdom, and others such as Expresso in Portugal and Evenimentul Zilei in Romania. The French financial newspaper Les Échos changed to this format in September 2003, and the largest daily papers in Croatia (Večernji list), Serbia (Politika) and Montenegro (Vijesti), are also in this format. The most recent European newspaper to join this trend is De Tijd/L'Echo, Belgium's main economic news publications (March 13, 2012). Student publication The University Observer became Ireland's first Berliner-sized paper in September 2009.

The name refers to the city of Berlin, and was originally contrasted with "North German" and "French" sizes in the early 20th century. Although the daily Berliner Zeitung is occasionally called simply Berliner, it is not printed in Berliner format. In fact, only two German national dailies use Berliner format: Die Tageszeitung (generally known as the "taz"); and the Junge Welt, which in 2004 abandoned the unique slightly-larger-than-A4 size that had distinguished it since the early 1990s. The majority of the national quality dailies use the larger broadsheet format known as "nordisch", measuring 570 mm × 400 mm (22.44 in × 15.75 in).