The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa., (Newhouse, 102,710 daily, 151,583 Sunday) on May 19 launched a tabloid edition of the paper, giving readers a choice between the broadsheet (above) and a compact version.

The compact edition, known as "The Patriot," is published Monday through Friday and condenses the news from the broadsheet into a quick, colorful version aimed at busy readers.

As Executive Editor David Newhouse tells it, editor and publisher John Kirkpatrick was inspired by a Malcolm Gladwell story about condiments. "Why not give consumers a choice, as they have in almost everything else?" Newhouse says. "You know the sad thing? Our industry is so conservative that this seems like a radical idea, rather than a 'duh'."

Kirkpatrick's epiphany about choice is similar to one that Independent editor Simon Kelner had before his newspaper began offering compact and broadsheet versions in 2003: "I was buying toothpaste and I saw you could buy a big tube, a small tube, all sizes -- why not do the same with the newspaper? A newspaper is the only product whose shape and size is dictated by the producer and not the consumer." The Independent, however, dropped the broadsheet entirely about eight months later, and Kelner allowed as how too much choice could perhaps be confusing.

The Patriot began at 56 pages and may run up to 64, says Kris Strawser, assistant managing editor/visuals. The cover will lean local, with a "main window" that will usually be local, unless big national or world news dictates otherwise. The cover will be generally restrained. The area could tolerate a brash cover, but, Strawser says, "I'm looking for a slightly more elegant tab. I'm not looking for the big, gritty 'thwack.'"

And it'll be newsy. A more entertainment-oriented cover didn't fly with focus groups, she says. Readers wanted news and a more serious treatment. "They said, 'Don't insult us with anything else.' "

The compact, like the broadsheet, in available for home delivery, and Newhouse says reader reaction has been "very, very enthusiastic," thought it's too early to draw any circulation or advertising conclusions. And although there was some internal mythbusting ("They're dumbing down the newspaper." "This is terrible for photographers."), "I've actually been surprised by the amount of encouragement and excitement in the newsroom."

The first five pages are open, offering a chance to use rails and other vertical elements to set a tone and help offset the relative "squatness" of the 11.5" x 12.5" pages before the ad-stack pages begin. The Sports section in the broadsheet was converted to tabloid last summer, so it just gets some slight adjusting for the compact version.

Typographically, The Patriot uses Poynter Gothic Text, Poynter Old Style Display and some Benton Gothic.