The Evening Gazette in Teesside is to bring its print times forward, as part of what it is hailing as a “major step forward” for its multimedia development.

The Gazette is to run its current two print editions back-to-back. The first edition will continue to be printed at 10.15am, with the second edition – currently printed at 12.30pm – running immediately afterwards.

Staff claim this amounts to a single edition run and the NUJ chapel has passed a resolution “deploring the decision” and saying it would severely damage the service to readers and further hit circulation.

The paper was down 3.3 per cent year-on-year to a 55,997 circulation in the latest ABC figures.

As part of the changes the paper’s website gazettelive.co.uk will include hourly live news bulletins and more audio and video content, and a five-strong reader content team is being set up to help drive ultra-local content for community blogs across Teesside.

The centre already has five trained video journalists and is expecting to double that number in 2007.

Editor Darren Thwaites said: “The editorial team has been terrific in driving forward our multimedia development at the same time as delivering one of the best newspaper circulation performances in the industry.

“We’ve really embraced the opportunities that digital content provides. We’re now able to deliver live news later than ever through our website, as well as providing audio, video and unlimited, searchable content.

“We’ve also put a lot of energy into developing the paper, working really hard on planning and presentation. I’m delighted that we’ve been rewarded with sustained excellent sales figures.”

However some staff at the paper are concerned that resources are being switched from the paper into digital media and feel they haven’t been properly consulted.

One staff member said: “People are concerned about the well-being of the Evening Gazette as a newspaper. If resources are switched from the paper to the website then obviously one is going to suffer at the expense of the other.”

The chapel called on the management to review the decision to scrap the later edition so the paper could continue to offer fresh, live, on-day news to readers.

The Gazette launched gazettelive.co.uk in February to replace icteesside.co.uk, and now has an online audience of more than 100,000 readers a month, with page impressions heading towards 2m.

Print times of the Gazette’s two editions were brought forward in March by 45 minutes to 10.15 and 12.30, and the paper says this has resulted in a significantly improved sales trend.

The new print times will begin on November 6, but the Gazette will retain the opportunity for later printing if there is a newspaper sales opportunity.