Published: Thursday, 26th March, 2009 5:30pm

Smaller on the outside, bigger on the inside

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Chronicle managing director Amanda Gee and news editor Maurice O'Brien with the first compact-sized edition hot off the presses

CHANGE is not something taken lightly when you've been around for nearly three centuries.

So we thought long and hard, and listened to what both our readers and advertisers had to say before settling on the new, compact look we launch today.

While it is a proud moment for all of us in Portman Road who strive to bring you the best local newspaper money can buy, the change is being made at a critical point in our history when the recession is biting more deeply than anyone forecast and our industry in particular is under the cosh.

The latter might be a cause for celebration in some circles, but when the plight of local and regional newspapers becomes the subject for debate in the House of Commons, as it did last week, then it really is serious.

For all our faults - and we would be the first to admit to those - we remain an independent voice and a counterbalance to the avalanche of slick, glossy verbiage which flows from the desks of the growing army of spin doctors and public relations teams employed by industry, local and central government to ensure that you get their side of any argument or development first and foremost.

We provide a voice for the opposition, the dissenter, for the little man who has nowhere else to turn, and our readers know that when we sing someone's praises they deserve your applause for all the right reasons.

From today The Chronicle becomes easier for our readers to handle, but the bad guys needn't think that applies to them too.