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.
“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.
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