A North Yorkshire weekly today becomes the latest Newsquest newspaper to switch from broadsheet to compact format.

The Craven Herald and Pioneer is beginning a new era with a new look after 156 years, including changing the ads-dominated front page to one carrying news.

Page one adverts and community notices will instead appear inside on page two.

The switch to compact follows similar recent moves by other papers in the Newsquest stable such as the Westmorland Gazette, Darlington and Stockton Times and The Northern Echo.

Editor Peter Greenwood said the Herald must adapt to meet the needs and demands of the 21st century if it wanted to survive as a community newspaper.

In making the announcement to readers, he said: “The time has come for one of the biggest changes in the history of the Craven Herald and Pioneer.

“Since I became editor two years ago, hardly a week has gone by without a reader asking: ‘When are you taking the ads off the front page, then?’.

“I have always answered that we had no concrete plans to do so.

“Reactions to that reply have been divided – between disappointment and a rather disbelieving relief.

“Some have shaken their heads, pityingly, and said that the newspaper cannot go on living in the past.

“But others have told me that the Craven Herald’s front page is an institution and that we tamper with it at our peril.

“We will ensure that the Herald maintains its traditional values despite taking on a different appearance. And we believe that the new look will attract those who may previously have been put off by the paper’s design.”

Today’s front page of the new-look Craven Herald and Pioneer