Why didn’t the Guardian go tabloid?

If you’ve visited the UK for the first time in a few years and picked up a newspaper, you might have noticed that it’s shrunk since the last time you were here. That’s because all the quality newspapers, with the exception of the conservative Daily Telegraph, have been redesigned and shrunk.

First the Independent decided to go tabloid size, then the Times followed suit and finally the Guardian broke the mould by moving to a ‘Berliner’ format. This seemed a curious decision by the Guardian and Noisy Decent Graphics has decided to investigate.

“One of the things that annoys me most about The Guardian is the size. It’s neither tabloid like The Independent or The Times or a full broadsheet like The Telegraph. Apparently when they were working on the redesign, the editor used to have a presentation where he explained why they didn’t go tabloid.

“He took the front page of the tabloid Indy and the tabloid Daily Mail and swapped them around. Then he asked people which one was which.”

Look at the papers above, can you tell at a quick glance which is the actual Independent headline and which is the Daily Mail?