Guardian mulls shift to midsize Berliner format

The <i>Guardian</i> may become a mid-sized paper, partway between a compact and a broadsheet.

Editor Alan Rusbridger has revealed that he may opt for the Continental Berliner format, used in France by Le Monde and the Pearson-owned Les Echos.

He denied, however, that the newspaper will follow The Times and the Independent and go tabloid.

In an interview with FT Creative Business, Rusbridger said: We havent actually said we will stay a broadsheet. There is something we wont talk about at the moment because it is not sensible. All we have said is that we wont go tabloid.

An industry source said: Such a move would be unique in the UK but is not on a world scale. There would be no technical issue if any newspaper reverted to that size.