The new Chronicle came out today — the first edition printed on a contractor’s presses — and, as the SF Weekly observed, the paper was an inch narrower than before. The Merc and other MediaNews papers went to a narrower size last year. The SF Weekly’s Joe Eskenazi writes:

If any of the Chron’s orgiastic coverage of its own doings mentioned that the new papers are noticeably physically smaller, well, it escaped us. In any event, the new-look Chron is 10.5 inches wide; last week’s editions were just shy of a foot wide. Papers growing smaller as a cost-saving measure is not an exclusive Chron story — but it sure feels disingenuous for the paper to tubthump that its new pages have sharper photos, don’t wrinkle up, cure eczema, and are a part of this healthy breakfast and not mention this extraordinarily relevant detail.

Above is a video the Chronicle produced about the new presses it will be using at contractor Transcontinental in Fremont, and here’s the story in today’s Chron about the switch in presses.