The Chicago Tribune -- one of the newest models of struggle in the newspaper industry -- recently announced it is producing a tabloid version of the paper Monday-Friday.

The drastic change is needed, the paper said, to stay afloat financially and to continue to compete with the Chicago Sun-Times, another tabloid. Subscribers will still receive the broadsheet paper, but newsstands will begin to carry the new tabloid edition.

What... what?

That's right. The Tribune is going to produce two different versions of its paper. They will have the same content, but the size and look will be different.

This sounds a little familiar...

In 2005, the Patriot-News tried a similar move. Needless to say, it didn't last.

As the editor of a broadsheet-style newspaper, I should condemn the move, but Chicago has a lot of something that State College does not: commuters. Before coming to State College, I took a lot of public transit, and there's something to what Tribune editors are saying. Commuters love tabloids, especially during the morning rush. Try opening up the Philadelphia Inquirer (broadsheet) on a busy subway line, and see how many friends you can make before getting to your stop (Hint: 0).

Nevertheless, the move is questionable when it comes to the Tribune's financial status. I asked some of my editors how they would feel about putting together two papers at 2 a.m., and the responses were not positive suitable for publication here. I'm not sure if the Tribune is planning on hiring more copy editors for the move, but "they will if they want to avoid a riot," according to one editor.

In short, we at the Collegian hope to see the Tribune pull through this tough financial time. It's a tough time for major newspapers, and we want to see them all succeed jobs.