Dow Jones & Co. announced today that the main edition of The Wall Street Journal will undergo design and content changes in the next few months and that the paper will convert to a smaller size in 2007.

Some of these enhancements will be introduced over coming months and continue through 2006, culminating in January 2007 with a reformatting of the Journal to a more industry-standard 48-inch web width from its current 60-inch web width. Retrofitting 19 presses in the Journal's 17 print sites to print the new web width will require about 15 months.

The AP reports:

The Journal's editor, Paul Steiger, said in a statement that the design changes would result in having fewer stories "jump" to inside pages; devoting less space to market statistics; including more links to the Journal's online edition, and using more "signposts" to guide readers to stories.

>The Wall Street Journal to Make Series of Innovative Design Enhancements, Cuts Web Width to 48 Inches [Press release]
>Wall Street Journal Trims Down in Redesign [Associated Press]
>Dow Jones Plans a Slimmed-Down Wall Street Journal [The New York Times]