New York Times to slim down

The pages get narrower by an inch-and-a-half on August 6. From the memo at the New York Observer's Media Mob:

There are few design changes that will be obvious to the reader, except for the overall page dimensions. There are the same number of columns per page with the exception of a slight adjustment to body type, for example. At other papers that have changed size, readers seem to have reacted positively....

Narrower columns mean either slightly smaller or slightly squarer photos, but for most readers. For editors, the main change will be fewer words per column and slightly tight one-column headlines are tighter. One consequence is somewhat shorter dress page runs.

The NYT is also moving some local New York coverage to a new blog they call City Room.