Two years ago, when The Independent’s editor, Simon Kelner, took the bold step of halving his paper’s size, he was able to publish broadsheet and tabloid simultaneously to test the market When The Times followed Kelner, it did the same. New presses in the South-east and Manchester; a marketing campaign, even new perspex bins for newsagents to display what for Britain will be a bastard-sized paper.And unlike the changes to compact format made by The Independent and The Times, there is no chance of turning back. His office is not brightly lit; it is dusky by day and twilight by night. Emerging from the shadows behind his large Mac screen, he was remarkably calm on the surface, considering the amount of money riding on his relaunch. Tomorrow, The Guardian joins the shrinking majority, launching its Berliner format, smaller than a broadsheet, larger than a tabloid.

It is used by a number of papers on the Continent such as Le Monde and La Repubblica. To maintain the global image the new type used for the new paper is called Guardian Egyptian.
I called in to see Alan Rusbridger, The Guardian’s editor, during the week. It has simply dared/happened/decided to remain a broadsheet when all around are shrinking. The Daily Telegraph is on the point of standing alone – a relic of a bygone age, a heritage newspaper, a theme park of a newspaper. It is about to find itself as the only daily broadsheet quality newspaper. Where once there were four (I leave out the FT because it is a specialist paper) there will now be one.

Steady on! It isn’t printed on parchment, or handwritten in monasteries. “I mean, how sexy is it to imagine someone’s brain lighting up in response to your product? But what it doesn’t tell you is why that brain is lighting up. Even the subjects themselves probably couldn’t tell you – and unless you know why, it’s not actionable.”Neuromarketing is certainly another tool for advertisers, and it feels robust because it’s science-based, but its boundaries need to be fully understood.”. Gaining access to them, usually via hospitals and universities, is difficult.But not everyone is convinced by the technique. Caroline Whitehill, co-founder of Acacia Avenue, a London-based research and strategy consultancy, said people should be aware of the limits.”It sounds fantastic,” said Ms Whitehill.