Large cut in leading article turns out to give much the same result (9)
I believe the answer is:
identical
'large cut in leading article turns out to give much' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.
'same result' is the wordplay.
'same' becomes 'identic' (I've seen this in another clue).
'result' becomes 'al' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'identic'+'al'='IDENTICAL'
'the' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for identical that I've seen before include "lacking distinction" , "Matching" , "Duplicate" , "Similar" , "not distinguished" .)