Sunday Times sections could go tabloid as News International studies options

by Staff, Brand Republic 22-Feb-05, 11:00

LONDON – The Sunday Times has looked at changing some of its sections to a tabloid format, but it is believed that consumer and advertiser sentiment has led it to rule out a complete change affecting the main paper.

The rethink comes after the successful conversion of The Times from its dual format to tabloid-only in October.

News International is considering extending the format change to parts of its Sunday broadsheet, under editor John Witherow, and has presented focus groups with dummy tabloid versions of the review, business, money and travel sections.

However, such a move may not go down well with advertisers, who were put out by the disparity between ad rates and sizes when The Times went tabloid.

A spokeswoman for News International said that the company was considering its options for The Sunday Times, but would not comment on specific sections.

The Sunday Times' January circulation was 1,375,982, down 1.32% year on year, but far ahead of its nearest rival, The Sunday Telegraph, which sold 692,107 copies.

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