It's a new dawn, it's a new day … and thankfully, it's not another Michael Bublé album. It is, however, the week of the New York Observer. Sure, Radar might be relaunching tomorrow, but that story got tired last month. For on Wednesday, our salmon weekly is going tabloid — with all sorts of changes.

The front cover that readers see on newsstands will contain no story text - only headlines, photo and a small version of its famous cartoon logo. [...]

Readers will have to turn the outside four-page wrap to see the "real" front page. [...]

Inside, there will be a lot more 400- and 500-word news stories while the long features - that once ran 3,000 to 5,000 words - will be trimmed to the 2,000- to 2,500-word range.

One striking change: The back page will showcase real estate in much the way more conventional tabloids reserve that space for the big sports story. "Real estate is porn to New York," Kaplan said.

There will also be a second "cover" inside, with a 20-page pullout on city culture.

All of which is a candy-coated way of notating: The Observer is going down market. And they're all sorts of excited about it.