Rolling Stone Shrinks to Smaller Format

After 40 years, magazine shifts to a more standard size

By Ambreen Ali, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 14, 2008 5:02 PM CDT

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Rolling Stone Shrinks to Smaller Format — After 40 years with the large format, Rolling Stone will mesh in with other standard-sized magazines on the racks. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

Who better to welcome an iconic shift at Rolling Stone than self-proclaimed agent of change Barack Obama? The presidential candidate beams on the smaller, standard-sized cover of the Oct. 30 issue, which features a glossier, thicker look after 41 years of the large format. Last month's final big issue featured a John McCain caricature flying a plane downwards, the AP reports.

“Like the man we are featuring on the cover for the third time in 7 months … we embrace the idea of change,” editor Jann Wenner writes in the upcoming issue. The rack-friendly format may boost single-copy sales and allows for more pages—and thus, more ads—with the same production costs. (Read more magazine stories.)

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