=After canvassing the subject with readers earlier this year, APN News & Media has committed to a switch to tabloid for its weekday ‘New Zealand Herald’ editions, later this year.

The move signals a possible end to the country’s love-affair with the broadsheet format, which has been the norm with a few regional exceptions.

While most editions go tabloid later this year, the Saturday version of the 150 year-old Auckland daily will remain broadsheet. Sales are reported to have been on slow decline, the current 170,000 a reduction of about 15 per cent over six years.

Canvassing the topic earlier this year, the paper pointed out that Whangarei's ‘Northern Advocate’, the ‘Wanganui Chronicle’, ‘Oamaru Mail’ and Wairarapa ‘Times-Age’ were all tabloid.

At the time, regional newspapers chief operating officer Rick Neville said the move had been well received by readers. Women preferred the easier-to-handle smaller size and it helped give the impression of a thicker newspaper as publishers tackled falling advertising volumes.

Some of the markets that had been changed to compact had been experiencing sharp declines in readership and all had halted, if not reversed, that trend.

In the South Island, APN's 'Christchurch Star' switched to tabloid – which can be produced on a wider range of presses – after the earthquake, and stayed with the format.