As I grappled with the 212-page Lincolnshire Echo, I smiled at seeing how regular readers had coped with this latest daily-turned-weekly.

“I had to open mine on the kitchen table instead of being able to read it in my comfy chair,” wrote Sylvia Wheeler in her letter on page 49 in the cat-killer’s second week.

“But it’s a great read, thank you,” she added, echoing the sentiments of another correspondent, Max Nottingham, who noted: “I read it over two or three days to take it all in.”

Therein lies the potential success of the weekly Echo – can it manage to retain the healthy editorial ratios currently funded by advertisers reignited with relaunch excitement?

On Thursday 27 October there was a total pagination of 212: a main book of 140 pages, 44 more in the property section and another 28 in the ‘Business Echo’ pull-out.

And while advertising was strong, it wasn’t overbearing with 350+ reads on 71 news and features editorial pages, 100+ reports on 16 sports pages and another 54 on 16 business pages, making the £1 cover price great value for money.

There was plenty that I liked throughout the paper, so let me get my front page gripes out of the way first.

The splash needed to be more dominant – this one not only took up less than half the width of the page but had shy headlines that resulted in a timid projection.

The main page one picture also needed to be more gripping – this arty one was simply not good enough for the shop window.

That said, there were ten entry points – the splash, picture, six write-offs and two strong boosts – and the overall design was well-structured.

The content of the splash was also interesting enough, a row over an extra 42 non-stop train services being diverted through Lincoln, creating hours of extra level crossing barriers for shoppers and traders.

I say ‘interesting enough’ because I can see the thinking that this was a story potentially affecting tens of thousands, the word ‘weekend’ keeping it relatively fresh for the next few days.

But it was a shame to see the ‘Weekend train chaos will cripple our trade’ headline a week after the launch edition’s that read ‘Ambitious master plan to end city road chaos’.

It’s important to keep consecutive fronts markedly different: two transport splashes both using the headline word ‘chaos’ could have meant some readers not noticing the arrival of the second week.

There was a great mix of harder news stories inside, with ‘Council’s £25,000 on premium flight deals’ placed as the page nine lead.

This could easily have been the splash, with a renosed headline and intro on the former fire chief who flew around the world in luxury for two years, supposedly “improving fire-fighter safety at an international level”. Just one of Mike Thomas’ business class tickets to Tokyo cost £4,334, an outrage during the depths of recession.

On page 10, the dramatic ‘Van driver jailed after head-on crash killed soldier’ story was a down-page second lead that cried out for an earlier right-hand position.

And another story worthy of a page one mention and a page five or seven lead was the ‘5,500 child porn pictures on OAP’s PC’ that appeared on page 34.

But I think by this stage I understood the approach of acting editor Steven Fletcher and his news desk: with 70 pages before the fold, it was important to keep a flow of solid news stories throughout.

This exhibited itself well in the three half pages of ‘In Court’ convictions coverage, with 21 cases on page 26, another 33 on page 35 and 19 on page 46. This was excellent, readable local detail, all linked with cross-references.

There were more leisurely reads in the six-page ‘Letters & Opinion’ section from pages 48 to 53, containing eight named columnists, the editorial leader and 13 readers’ letters.

More names and plenty of faces were found in ‘Your Week in Pictures’ on pages 22 and 23, with 13 sent-in snaps from local events and clear instructions for more would-be contributors.

This clarity continued in the heart-warming ‘Births’ and ‘Weddings’ picture sections on pages 56 and 57, displaying wonderful pictures and well-planned, structured information.

For example, “Baby: Summer Rose Richardson. Birth weight: 5lb 12oz. Date of birth: October 14. Time of birth: 10.55pm. Early or late: 21 days early. Parents: Roxanne Cook and Andrew Richardson. Picture: Carly Brown.”

This was simple but captivating stuff, containing all the answers to questions your mum would ask about a newborn and weddings.

Another deft editorial touch was a regular ‘Coming up’ panel reminding readers that there was much more to come, single column picture boosts carefully placed on pages 16 and 42.

It’s often said that a paper’s true popularity in a community can be judged by the width of its births, marriages and deaths columns, and the Echo had more than 70 ads in its Family Announcements section, running from pages 19 to 21.

Sport was also impressive, with two detailed interviews filling a spread and a half with Lincoln City chairman Bob Dorian and his newly appointed manager David Holdsworth, only appointed on the Monday.

Fletcher deserves praise for leading his team to deliver what I thought was a product of pretty high quality, especially when you consider the steep hill he initially had to climb.

Jon Grubb, the then daily’s editor of four years, abruptly left just weeks before Northcliffe announced the Echo was going weekly; Fletcher not only had to pick up the reins but also had to implement a 20 pc staff cull at the same time as keeping morale high and preparing for relaunch.

With two competent weeks under his belt, Fletcher will undoubtedly now fine-tune and develop the Echo’s future as a healthy weekly, and will surely soon be confirmed as long-term editor.

Meanwhile, more of the small dailies I predicted in July would be going weekly have now done so – Scunthorpe and Exeter joining their sister Northcliffe titles in Torquay and now Lincolnshire.

It’s an uncomfortable truth, but for many the future is going to be weekly.

I wonder which former evening will be the next to change at Northcliffe – and how soon it will be before Johnston Press, Newsquest, Iliffe or any of the family-owned centres join them.