The Press and Journal has announced plans to launch a new compact edition on Saturdays.

The Aberdeen-based broadsheet daily hopes to unveil its compact issue on August 7, which will be available for sale each Saturday on a trial basis before a decision is made on whether to make the change permanently.

The weekday broadsheet version will be unaffected.

The move follows research by the paper, which showed its broadsheet size was becoming an obstacle to gaining new readers, and a growing feeling amongst existing readers that they would prefer a compact size.

Editor Derek Tucker said: “If feedback on the new size is in line with our initial research then we would take the decision to make it permanent.

“However we are not even considering changing the weekday format at the moment.

“Obviously this is a significant change in the history of the paper and it is very much a case of one step at a time.”

But despite the change to a compact format, Derek insists the paper, which currently has an average daily circulation of 90,000, will not be going ‘tabloid’.

He said: “In the past newspapers such as ours have been a bit nervous about making the step as the perception has been that a smaller ‘tabloid’ size paper is more downmarket.

“But now that titles such as The Times and the Independent have made the move the stigma has been removed.

“Obviously the change will bring with it some difference in story lengths and the way they are displayed, but we will be using the same typefaces and everything readers expect to see will be in the Saturday compact edition.”

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