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Malcolm Starbrook, editor of the Croydon Advertiser, has gone back to basics to revamp the newspaper.

The Advertiser has been re-sized and redesigned using feedback from readers.

Research found that people thought the paper was unwieldy as a broadsheet but they didn’t want to see it go tabloid.

So the design team has made the paper narrower and drawn up a new style book so that design is standardised throughout the paper.

The paper’s format has also changed. Before the news was split into two seperate sections; there is now one main news section.

Malcolm told Hold the Front Page: “People said they would read the first section but often forgot that the second section had news stories in it as well as the small ads.

“Also, the paper could look cluttered and there would be variations in the amount of white space on different pages.

“As happens with a lot of places, a style book existed but it tended to stay locked away in people’s draws.

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