Competition between the Irish Examiner and the Irish Independent is to intensify with Independent News & Media (IN&M) introducing its "compact" edition into the Munster region. Emmet Oliver reports.

This Monday the compact edition will be available throughout Munster and south Leinster, IN&M said yesterday. However, it declined to disclose sales figures for the format, simply saying they were at the "upper end of expectations".

Mr Barry Brennan, marketing director with IN&M, said the decision would give additional choice to the paper's readership base in Waterford, Cork, Kerry, Tipperary, Limerick, Clare, Kilkenny, Carlow and Wexford.

"I am confident that our new compact edition will be as convenient for the busy lives of our readers in these areas as we've already seen in greater Dublin." The compact and broadsheet editions are sold alongside each other for €1.50 Monday to Friday.

Mr Anthony Dinan, managing director of Thomas Crosbie Holdings, which owns the Examiner, said that, while the company had the technology to publish a compact edition, it had no plans to do so. "We are happy with our product the way it is," he said.

Meanwhile in Britain, the Independent on Sunday is to relaunch, but most of the paper is not going tabloid, IN&M said yesterday.

From March 1st, the Sunday broadsheet will come with a new arts magazine "showcasing the finest critics and commentators", a new tabloid business section and an expanded Sunday review.

In the year to January, circulation of the Independent on Sunday fell by 5.18 per cent to 167,402, when bulk sales and free giveaways were stripped from the sales figures.

In contrast, the daily newspaper saw its circulation rise by 14.39 per cent to 212,927 year-on-year in January, thanks to the launch of its tabloid edition.