I'm a bit, er, behind on this one, but Italy's largest newspaper, the Milan-based Corriere della Sera (RCS, 664,000), trimmed its size and made design and content refinements on July 20. Gianni Valenti was kind enough to send along details.

The broadsheet shrunk from 38cmx53cm to 35cmx50cm, which is roughly one inch wider and an inch and a half shorter than The New York Times, and is now has a seven-column grid instead of nine. The paper has also added full color (new presses will print color on every page up to 96 pages) and beefed up the page count on inside sections of the paper like Economics, Culture and Sports, giving them their own cover. The back page, traditionally reserved entirely for advertising, now has a "news in two minutes" column, as well as numbers from the major financial markets and promos for the paper's website.

This was an inside job, overseen by editor-in-chief Paolo Mieli and executed by Gianni Valenti, central chief editor, and Gianluigi Colin, art director.

Another RCS daily, La Gazzetta dello Sport (famously printed on pink newsprint) is set to redesign next month.

More pages after the jump.