diff --git a/UPDATING b/UPDATING
--- a/UPDATING
+++ b/UPDATING
@@ -27,6 +27,18 @@
 	world, or to merely disable the most expensive debugging functionality
 	at runtime, run "ln -s 'abort:false,junk:false' /etc/malloc.conf".)
 
+20231225:
+	newsyslog(8) will no longer compress rotated files by default.
+	The J, X, Y, Z flags in newsyslog.conf(5) configuration files now
+	signify "treat the file as compressible" instead of "compress the
+	file with the specified method." A new command line option, -c, has
+	been introduced to allow specification of a new compression type
+	or to restore historical behavior.
+
+	To reinstate the historical behavior, modify the newsyslog entry
+	in your /etc/crontab to include "-c legacy". For more details,
+	consult the newsyslog(8) manual page.
+
 20231120:
 	If you have an arm64 system that uses ACPI, you will need to update your
 	loader.efi in the ESP when you update past this point.  Detection of ACPI
diff --git a/usr.sbin/newsyslog/newsyslog.8 b/usr.sbin/newsyslog/newsyslog.8
--- a/usr.sbin/newsyslog/newsyslog.8
+++ b/usr.sbin/newsyslog/newsyslog.8
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
 .\" the suitability of this software for any purpose.  It is
 .\" provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.
 .\"
-.Dd December 22, 2023
+.Dd December 25, 2023
 .Dt NEWSYSLOG 8
 .Os
 .Sh NAME
@@ -84,15 +84,15 @@
 .Nm
 to use the specified compression method when a file is flagged for compression.
 The default method is
-.Dq legacy ,
-which interprets the
-.Sy J, X, Y, Z
-flags in the configuration file according to their historical meanings.
-This default setting can be overridden by specifying
-.Fl c Ar none ,
+.Dq none ,
 which causes
 .Nm
 to ignore all compression flags.
+This default can be overridden by specifying
+.Fl c Ar legacy
+which  interprets the
+.Sy J , X , Y , Z ,
+flags in the configuration file according to their historical meanings.
 Alternatively, specifying one of the compression methods:
 .Sy bzip2 , gzip , xz ,
 or
diff --git a/usr.sbin/newsyslog/newsyslog.c b/usr.sbin/newsyslog/newsyslog.c
--- a/usr.sbin/newsyslog/newsyslog.c
+++ b/usr.sbin/newsyslog/newsyslog.c
@@ -249,7 +249,7 @@
 static char *archdirname;	/* Directory path to old logfiles archive */
 static char *destdir = NULL;	/* Directory to treat at root for logs */
 static const char *conf;	/* Configuration file to use */
-static enum compress_types_enum compress_type_override = COMPRESS_LEGACY;	/* Compression type */
+static enum compress_types_enum compress_type_override = COMPRESS_NONE;	/* Compression type */
 static bool compress_type_set = false;
 static bool compress_type_seen = false;
 
diff --git a/usr.sbin/newsyslog/newsyslog.conf b/usr.sbin/newsyslog/newsyslog.conf
--- a/usr.sbin/newsyslog/newsyslog.conf
+++ b/usr.sbin/newsyslog/newsyslog.conf
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 # configuration file for newsyslog
 #
+# Global compress method for files tagged as compressible.
+<compress> none
 # Entries which do not specify the '/pid_file' field will cause the
 # syslogd process to be signalled when that log file is rotated.  This
 # action is only appropriate for log files which are written to by the
diff --git a/usr.sbin/newsyslog/tests/legacy_test.sh b/usr.sbin/newsyslog/tests/legacy_test.sh
--- a/usr.sbin/newsyslog/tests/legacy_test.sh
+++ b/usr.sbin/newsyslog/tests/legacy_test.sh
@@ -206,7 +206,7 @@
 run_newsyslog()
 {
 
-	newsyslog -f ../newsyslog.conf -F -r "$@"
+	newsyslog -f ../newsyslog.conf -F -r -c legacy "$@"
 }
 
 tests_normal_rotate() {