A Scottish daily editor has pointed to the success of his newspaper’s compact relaunch as evidence of the continuing demand for the printed word.

Damian Bates switched Aberdeen daily The Press and Journal to the new format earlier this year, eight months after taking over from long-serving predecessor Derek Tucker.

Speaking at a session of the Society of Editors conference entitled ‘Adapt or Die,’ he said readership had increased by 22pc since the relaunch.

He asked delegates: “Are our newspapers really done for? “Not if you look at the Aberdeen Press and Journal.”

Damian said it was his “mission” on taking over as editor to make te P&J even more relevant in the market place by moving to an easier-to-handle format.

“We increased the amount of local news and spent a whopping six-figure sum on advertising our wares.  We have a bustling, profitable, successful business based on dead trees,” he said.

In answer to a question, Damian said he had to some extent continued with Derek’s policy of not uploading all P&J stories to the web.

“We do provide breaking news on the web but we certainly don’t give away content that’s unique to the paper.”

Scottish Newspaper Society director Jim Chisholm, who chaired the session, commended the Press and Journal’s investment.

 “I believe that three quarters of the decline in newspaper circulations are self-inflicted because we spend so little on circulation and then wonder why it’s declining,” he said.

The conference also heard another success-story from Sefano Hatfield, editor of The Independent spin-off ‘i’ which now sells 300,000 copies a day.

Stefano said: “i is unashamedly serious, and unashamedly the same as what’s in the Independent – just subbed down to be shorter.

“The idea is to target our rivals’ readers – and target those who are lost to the marketplace.

“Our strongest days are when we splash on what everyone else splashes on, so we deliberately don’t seek to have the quirky splash.

“The Independent still loses money, but it loses less money, and i makes a positive contribution to The Independent as a whole.

“Diet coke didn’t kill off coke, and the i won’t kill off the Independent.”