"...involved as never before in these debates about what constitutes a quality press."

Will, sadly, be a short debate without viablilty ~ the need for which is the driver of these changes.

A gutter press is not a good news channel.

"Given that "we are all tabloid now", Australian print journalists and their readers are forced to confront the collapse of a familiar, value-laden distinction"

An unreasonable distinction as it has always been true that size does not matter as much as what you do with it...

Content and context is everything.

In any event as more people get theirs through Android Tabloid screens, the distinctions get even more blurred whilst the display resolutions don't.

...How refreshing, here is evidence that pandering to the “hoi-oligoi”, is actually detrimental to the bottom line. I only wish for Politicians to quickly learn from this lesson!

Wouldn't it be nice, if someone would just take this bloke in hand & show him how to GET A LIFE.

Not sure what to make of the other posts..

But the author may be looking at two, connected trends.. both the shift to compact format and the shift in content are due to the fact that the traditional media is losing readers and ads, so they've had to shift to adapt. shifting to tabloid in itself does not mean the articles necessarily become less serious or more about lifestyle.. the SM Herald, for example, has long been running more lifestyle stories, and now its also gone tabloid.

After two days of the tabloid 'Age', I've got two observations: the content is even more rabidly, sensationally green and anti-Liberal than before; there's more 'lifestyle', 'wellbeing' and related rubbish than ever. Even the crossword, the only reason I've bought 'The Age' for the past decade or so is now harder to read, especially for those of us with ageing eyes.

A once fine paper continues its downward spiral.

...Unfortunately or not, it’s the “masses” that count in the bottom line. They represent the drunken and debauched, the faggots and dykes, the crooked and straight, rich and poor, and generally speaking the “voting” public with a voice to heed or to ignore at peril.

...There is no divide and rule about Murdoch; in true Capitalist style he simply plundered the masses by “Tabloid”!