Compact format sign of Times

The Times of London has published its final edition as a broadsheet newspaper. Today, it relaunches as a tabloid.

The Times is the second British newspaper to move to a smaller, more commuter-friendly format in a bid to reverse slumping sales.

Sales for Britain's broadsheet newspapers have been falling over the past few years.

The Independent switched to the smaller "compact" format in September last year and has seen its sales grow by almost 20 per cent.

The Times, which began publishing in 1788, has been printing both tabloid and broadsheet formats since last November and says sales have grown by 4.5 per cent to 660,000 copies a day.