Archant Anglia titles the Cambridgeshire Times and the Wisbech Standard were set to move this week from a Friday publication day – which they have had since the 1880s – to a Wednesday.
Editor Brian Asplin has timed the move to offer readers the best-possible coverage of local elections.
“We’ll have the latest news out on the street before polling day on 1 May and we will be first with the big stories afterwards,” he said.
Asplin said the decision to move to Wednesday publication had come about following the sales success of sister titles such as the Hunts Post, which publishes on that day and has posted 10 successive ABC increases.
“Other titles had an immediate uplift and haven’t looked back since,” he said.
“Having two extra days on sale before the weekend seems to be the key to that.
“It enables us to live up to our new slogan – First for Fenland.”
Asplin, who has risen from junior reporter to editor during 39 years with the Fenland papers, added: “We turned them both tabloid in 1985 after a century of publishing as broadsheets, but I think this change is even more important and exciting.”
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog