History in the making as we look ahead to new compact format paper

As we went to press yesterday Monday evening, the newsroom in the Westmeath Examiner was quieter than usual. It was a bank holiday so the phones weren’t hopping or the emails weren’t pinging, as would be normal.

But those of us who were on duty were conscious of the 133 years of history since the first examiner was published in 1882. The skeleton staff yesterday included John Fitzsimons in the newsroom, who has 42 years of service with the examiner, and Joe Tone, Celtic Media Group pre-press production manager, who has worked here 35 years. The rest of us are here no more than a wet week by contrast!

Nevertheless, the entire team who work here in 2015 inherit a proud tradition, which sports editor Paul Hughes (our resident historian) has dealt with, and several decades of which John Fitz remembers first hand on page 10 in this week's last ever broadsheet edition of the examiner.

Things are changing incredibly quickly in this business, as the effects of the recession linger and the severe competition from digital media makes its presence felt more and more month by month and we work hard to stay abreast of the change and move with the times. Our website and presence on social media are strong and growing, and the latest change we offer to our readers and advertisers is a new, compact format for the Westmeath Examiner, which will be in the shops next week.

Those same advertisers and readers are loyal to the paper that has served the community for so long, and they have a real sense of ownership of it. We remain grateful to them for their long and continued support and engagement and we hope the new format will encourage them to maintain those.

The examiner will continue to be a voice for the people. We aim to continue reporting on the stories and issues that are important and to keep up our high standard of coverage of sports and community events.

As we move to the compact format, we would like to say that while we are changing and will look a little different, all that has made the examiner great down through the years, the traditions and values, will be maintained and remain at the core of our journalistic and ethical values.

What is different, without giving too much away ahead of next week’s launch, will be a more vibrant and colourful examiner in a more accessible format for readers who are increasingly on the move.

We hope you will like our new look but don’t forget that the examiner team remain in the same location on the same contact details and are always happy to hear from you.

VIDEO: See a quick 5 seconds clip of our last broadsheet edition dated 1st May 2015