View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

Belfast Telegraph goes totally tabloid

By Owen Amos

The Belfast Telegraph will print every edition in tabloid from tomorrow – after the move was endorsed “almost to a man and woman” by readers.

The morning edition had been tabloid for four years, while the evening version of the paper stayed broadsheet.

But, from tomorrow, every edition will be tabloid for the first time in the Independent News and Media paper’s 138-year history.

The move comes just days after the Darlington and Stockton Times and Reading Chronicle announced they were going tabloid.

The Telegraph’s market research, carried out over a year, said a smaller format was seen as more ‘modern, stylish, and relevant”.

Readers also said the ‘old’Telegraph reflected the old, violent Belfast.

Telegraph editor Martin Lindsay said they had canvassed current, former, and occasional readers.

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

“The feedback we have got is the broadsheet format is a difficult paper to handle,” he said.

“People have busier lifestyles these days, they are always on the move…almost to a man and woman they asked us to change to compact.”

Lindsay added the paper would improve, as it would be easier to add news to the evening edition, as it wouldn’t involve a format change.

In the second half of 2008, according to ABC, the Telegraph’s circulation was 60,179, down 8.1 per cent year on year.

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network