By Hamish Mackay
The Newsquest-owned Glasgow-based broadsheet Sunday Herald is to switch to compact from this Sunday.
It becomes the first national quality Scottish Sunday newspaper to opt for the compact format.
The
move is seen as a bold initiative to close the circulation gap on its
two main quality competitors north of the Border – Scotland on Sunday
and The Sunday Times Scotland.
However, its daily sister paper, The Herald, is not following suit.
Of
Scotland’s two main quality publishing companies, Edinburgh-based
Scotsman Publications has The Scotsman as a tabloid daily and the
broadsheet Scotland on Sunday, while the position is reversed at
Newsquest (Herald & Times).
Both stables have tabloid evenings – the Evening News, Edinburgh, and the Evening Times, Glasgow.
On
the decision to switch to compact, Sunday Herald editor Richard Walker
stressed the change would be to the size of the newspaper, not its
content.
“The compact format is becoming increasingly popular
with readers, and we believe it will allow us greater flexibility in
the way that we present our news and features.”
Walker added: “We have built a healthy circulation in one of the world’s most crowded newspaper markets.
“Indeed,
the past nine months have seen consistent year-on-year circulation
rises, despite the flood of free CDs, DVDs and the giveaways offered by
our rivals.”
The Sunday Herald’s UK circulation in last month’s ABC figures was 58,140 – a year-on-year increase of 4.72 per cent.
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