The News & Observer in Raleigh made the switch to the narrow format in August, changing from a 48-inch web.

The Sun is already smaller, and other Tribune papers will follow suit, with some shaving two inches from their web while the flagship Tribune and L.A. Times move from 48 inches to the slimmer profile.

The smaller size saves money on newsprint, one of newspapers’ biggest expenses.

Like LinkedIn, which debuted in 2003 and claims more than 45 million members, BrightFuse allows users to “highlight their talent through customizable profiles that reflect their backgrounds, skills and specialties. In addition to basic personal and professional information, workers can add recommendations from contacts, community activities, Twitter updates, RSS feeds to a blog or Web site, and much more to their profiles,” says a release from the company.

The August 19 release notes the official launch of BrightFuse and says it has 1.6 million members, while the site’s About page says it has been in operation since February 2008.

CareerBuilder is owned by The McClatchy Company, Gannett Co., Inc., Tribune Company and Microsoft Corp.

Media Jobs Daily searched BrightFuse for CareerBuilder employees and found only a few perfunctory profiles. “Do you really need another networking site? Apparently not even CareerBuilder thinks so.”

“One thing BrightFuse seems to offer, unlike LinkedIn, is that it’s free to search by company,” Media Jobs Daily says. “(LinkedIn users need to subscribe to view the full names of people who work for a certain company.) This feature may make the service more attractive to recruiters – if anyone gets on the site and uses the dang thing.”