A family-owned weekly newspaper in the East Midlands has brought its Friday publication day forward by 24 hours as part of a wide-ranging relaunch.

The Newark Advertiser says it has made the change in order to give advertisements a longer shelf life before the weekend.

The move coincides with a redesign carried out under the supervision of Press Association Training’s Peter Sands and Mike Brough.

The changes, which came into effect last week, have had an immediate impact on sales with the newspaper’s biggest outlet, supermarket chain Morrisons, reporting an 11pc week-on-week increase.

Said Peter: “Making changes to the Advertiser was a delicate operation. The paper is steeped in tradition and clearly belongs to the community. We had to carefully modernise it while retaining its essence and distinctive look.”

The masthead retains its Ultra Bodoni typeface, but is enlarged with a shadow while splash heading caps are dropped in favour of lower case Century Bold.

Sport takes over the back page, feature pages follow a magazine format and news pages now have a modular treatment with smaller lower-case headings.

Charman and editor-in-chief Roger Parlby said: “Peter Sands has given the paper a new dress while retaining its characteristic content.”

The paper’s editorial in the relaunch edition said: “A refreshed Advertiser strives to please relying on the solid foundation of years long gone.”

Roger is pictured with the new-look title alongside his daughter Joanna Parlby, who is the Advertiser’s managing director.