N.Y. Observer tries pithier way

A revamped version of the New York Observer will appear on newsstands and online Wednesday, this time as a tabloid with shorter stories and a stepped-up focus on real estate. The new focus reflects an attempt to expand the financially troubled paper’s circulation and to update a format that often featured long stories about the city’s media, political and real estate elite.

The weekly paper, whose 50,000 readers include some of Manhattan’s most influential players, will retain its trademark salmon color. But stories that once ran 3,000 words or more will be shorter, and there will be an abundance of 400- to 500-word pieces, along with a new logo and typeface, according to editor Peter Kaplan and new owner Jared Kushner.

Kushner, 25, a law school student and the son of a wealthy New York-area developer, bought the weekly paper last summer for an estimated $10 million and vowed that a redesigned paper would “tackle convention.” At the time, the paper was said to be losing an estimated $2 million a year.

-- Josh Getlin