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Lincolnshire Echo is latest Northcliffe daily to go weekly

By Press Gazette

The Lincolnshire Echo has become the fourth Northcliffe daily to make the switch to weekly this year, with an as yet unknown number of jobs set to go.

There were widespread rumours in recent months that the paper was set to make the switch and news was confirmed on its website this morning.

The first edition of the weekly paper, which will average around 184 pages, will appear on 20 October .

The company said the switch to weekly was the ‘best way to secure the title’s long-term future”.

‘The Echo has been serving the people of Lincolnshire since 1893,’said acting edfitor Steven Fletcher.

“We have been at the heart of the community and this will remain so.

“Reading habits have changed so much and the Echo is moving with the times.”

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Fletcher claimed the move would allow it ‘offer much more content to readers’adding: ‘There will be more analysis of important issues, we are introducing new columnists and topic areas into the paper, and we will give the readers a paper they keep coming back to.

“My aim is to produce a 184-page newspaper that will provide the most comprehensive package for those who want the best in news, sport, features, jobs, homes, cars and what is happening locally.”

Lincolnshire Media Group managing director Mark Price said added: “Our advertisers will experience an immediate benefit as we anticipate a single issue of the weekly to reach a much wider market than any single edition of the current daily publication.

“The decision has been announced to staff. A number of jobs are likely to be affected as a result of the move, but the Lincolnshire Echo management team has pledged to do everything it can to limit the number of compulsory redundancies.”

According to the latest figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulation the Echo had an average daily circulation of 17,151 in the first half of this year, a 7.6 per cent year on year fall.

Last month the Exeter Express & Echo become the third Northcliffe title to announce the switch after the Scunthorpe Telegraph and the Herald Express in Torquay.

Another Northcliffe daily, the Bath Chronicle, switched from daily to weekly publication in 2007.

Lincolnshire Echo editor Jon Grubb stepped down in July.

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