The Northern Echo's switch to a compact format after 137 years appears to have gone well, with the week-on-week sales figure up by an encouraging 2.7 per cent in the first week of the conversion.

Discounting Saturdays, the year-on-year performance for the first week of the compact was just 0.7 per cent down and the total daily audience for The Northern Echo - comprising print and online figures - broke through the 150,000 mark for the first time.

Editor Peter Barron said: "Clearly, these are very early days and we expected a lift from what has been an excellent marketing campaign. Nevertheless, they are encouraging figures and a testament to the hard work that has gone into the compact conversion."

The historic move for one of the country's best-known regional titles was supported by a marketing campaign under the slogan "In Better Shape Than Ever".

It follows a year-long experiment with the Saturday paper which indicated that around 80 per cent of readers preferred a handier sized format.