New look-kool Sportstar?

Three weeks ago, I decided that my "sports quotient" had dropped to alarming levels, especially when it came to non-televised sports and domestic tournaments. I have not read The Sportstar in a long, long time, so I began purchasing that great love of my childhood (when I would devour a lot of issues obtained from my father's office. The posters were the highlights of course).

The last two issues of the weekly did a lot to assuage any suspicions I had about its quality and coverage: articles by Brijnath (always a good sign), coverage of chess and swimming, photo features, tributes, old sporting encounters revisited - in short, excellent stuff that told me it was time to put in the 426/- for the annual sub. Until this week.

The editor-in-chief's note on the 2nd page popped up as a hidden speedbreaker. It says that from the next week, "the magazine will sport a new look as a tabloid... packaged neatly into the compact format". Apparently, the result of some redesigning exercise.

Why? My pulse races as I contemplate what a magazine in "tabloid" form must be like? It's supposed to have "a new typeface" that will be "young and bold" and "reader-friendly". Call me conservative and living in the past, but I can't see what is reader-unfriendly about the current look. The large font-ed, well-spaced out look on thick white paper always looked inviting. Unless, all this is a euphemism for cutting costs somewhere. They promise that the articles will continue to be the same, but I'm not shelling out my money unless I make sure of what it's going to be like for the next couple of issues.