No big deal, you may be thinking, we’ll just make the headlines a bit smaller, drop the subheads, shrink the body type and cut out excess white space. No sweat, really, it’ll only take a few minutes.

Well, actually, it won’t. There are no simple ways of dealing with the continuing pressure on editorial space. It demands much thought, painful decisions have to be made and, in some cases, the whole structure of news presentation will need to undergo quite radical change.

First, let’s discount those quick, band-aid solutions.

Yes, shrinking the point size and leading of the body type will have an immediate and obvious impact on story length. But, by itself, it’s probably futile. I’ll explain. During a recent trip to a California, I tinkered with the type size, reducing it from 9.5pt Nimrod with 10pt leading to 9pt on 9.5pt leading.

That translated to savings of about four inches on the front page. Reducing the type down to 8.8pt on 9.25pt leading gave us another inch or so, but the page became much harder to read. And those savings - ranging from two to six lines on each of the stories - are pretty useless if we can’t concentrate the space we save in one unit.

Why? Because, without fundamental change to front page news presentation, the only effect of reducing the text size will be to cram more words onto the page. That may be a worthy goal but it is not the point of the exercise. Reducing the size of headlines and dropping explanatory subheads will trim even more space, you might argue. That’s right, but we’ll cut even more if we stop printing photographs and slash the space between the columns of type. Those ‘solutions’ are quite pointless, unless the aim is to make reading and comprehension harder, which is probably the easiest way to irritate and lose readers.

The only effective solution to the problem of shrinking newshole is to rethink the content and shape of every aspect of the newspaper, tackling i t section by section. Then, as soon as the job’s finished start again. That way you should be able to ensure that your paper is always fresh and up to date - until the next crisis, anyway.

Here are a few of the questions you ought to be asking:

1. Is each editorial element worth its space?
a) Do you really need a half page weather map in full color or is it a luxury? A big weather map makes sense in a national newspaper like USA Today, but it will not have the same impact, say, in The Daily News at West Bend, Wisconsin, whose readers tend not to stray quite so far from home. And this newspaper, along with many others, would probably serve its readers better by eliminating the half-page state weather chart and substitute it with a much smaller five-day forecast. Especially if that forecast goes on page 1, where the readers can find it easily.

b) Do you really need to publish stocks tables every day? One editor told me that if she dropped the two pages she would lose readers to The Wall Street Journal. Yes, she might lose a handful, but she’ll gain extra editorial space, which might just, if filled wisely, attract more new readers. Anyway, I wonder if serious investors still use local newspapers for stock market information. It is a good idea to publish prices of local stocks but perhaps a 1-900 service is the answer to those few readers who check their shares every day. And another editor to whom I spoke while writing this article pointed out that his newspaper carries 30 columns of stocks on Saturday, which consumed as much editorial space as two days of sports coverage. That, he felt, was crazy and would change as soon as he could persuade his nervous publisher to make a decision. Whichever way we proceed down this rocky path, those decisions must be based on what is right for today and tomorrow, not what worked yesterday.

c) Is the editorial page worth a full page, or should one of the columns be replaced by advertising? Does anyone read it - should it be scrapped and the space used for something more useful? Does the op-ed page earn its keep? Could the space be better used for another general interest feature?

2. Do some editorial features need more space?
a) Look at your TV listings? Are they clear and readable and is there space for information on the night’s best viewing? “Why would we,” to quote an editor I spoke to, “want to give space to the opposition media?” Because TV is not opposition. Everyone watches TV and we will help ourselves by helping and informing our readers about the best viewing tonight and tomorrow.

b) Do you provide an interactive forum for letters to the editor or do you simply cram all the pompous political bores and self-righteous religious fruitcakes into a hole on the op-ed page twice a week? A well-edited letters page need occupy no more space than a bad one, but the impact on readers can be enormous.

c) Could you give a perception of a more complete newspaper by increasing the story count, perhaps by adding more columns of well-edited briefs throughout the paper?

d) Are there other areas of local or national coverage that need to be handled in greater depth?

3. Is the advertising placement as effective as possible?

a) At many smaller newspapers the advertising dummy is put together by a junior clerk in the advertising department in the same manner as it has been done for years. The editorial staff, unquestioning, fill up the spaces between the ads. Don’t. If the advertising dummy is inefficient, sit down with the advertising staff and change it so you get the best space possible. If it works for you, it will almost certainly work for the reader and the advertiser.

b) Check the dummy to ensure that house ads are kept to the minimum.

c) Work with the advertising department to contain the classifieds in a realistic space every day. It makes a mockery of efforts to utilize space effectively if you have to fill three quarters of a page with junk wire copy at the last minute when the classifieds run short.

d) Don’t be afraid to put small, tasteful and well-designed ads on section fronts. They won’t affect your editorial integrity and will give you more space for editorial on inside pages. Consider seriously whether you should allow an ad to be placed at the foot of page A1. Canadian newspapers have carried front page advertising positions for years and their readers haven’t revolted (although the dollar has collapsed and Quebec is trying to secede from the union).

4. Eliminate wastage of space

a) If your lifestyle section front regularly contains just one big picture and a single story you’re probably engaged in overkill. Try to create exciting pages with several levels of entry that will attract readers and encourage them to spend as much time as possible on each page.

b) Edit tightly. Get more information onto your pages by getting to the point faster and cutting excess waffle. Save the editors’ time by getting your writers to write less. Shorter is almost always smarter.

5. Use the most effective press configuration possible

a) Are the press runs arranged for the convenience of the printer or for the convenience of the newspaper? Kevin Doyle, editor of The Post-Crescent at Appleton, Wis., tells me that his newspaper’s Sunday sports section increased from eight to 14 pages after the press was reconfigured to run the pre-print. Where was the space gained? From the classified preprint, which contained out of date wire copy.

b) Is color used sensibly or is it just wasteful? Another newspaper I visited recently devoted the back page of its B section to a dull picture feature and weather map. At the same time the managing editor complained about a lack of space for editorial inside the 6-page section! If the color had been discarded the advertising could have been redistributed throughout the section, giving a perception of greater newshole.

That last point is the real key to what we should be doing - using the available space better so that we give our readers the best value for their time and money. To do it properly requires effort. Reducing the typesize may be part of the answer, but the total solution requires much more thought and effort. And this effort is too important to be confined solely to the newsroom - it must involve every department of the newspaper.