Gloucestershire's two daily newspapers, the Citizen and Echo, are to become weekly newspapers.

The shock announcement was made on the papers' website gloucestershirelive.co.uk this morning.

With falling newspaper circulations there had been speculation for some time that the Cheltenham-based Echo would go weekly.

But the news that the Gloucester Citizen is also to become a weekly will have taken many people by surprise.

The Citizen and Echo will become weekly publications from October 12 and sadly it seems inevitable there will be some jobs losses with five posts set to go.

Trinity Mirror, who own the publications, say reading habits have changed with more and more people getting news from the group's websites like gloucestershirelive.co.uk

Trinity Mirror's newspaper the Bristol-based Western Daily Press will launch a Gloucestershire edition to provide daily news.

Gloucestershire Media managing director Sarah Pullen explained the reasons for the decision.

She said: "This change to our print titles is being dictated by the behaviour of our readers and the amazing growth success of our website Gloucestershire Live.

"We still have a loyal print audience but the majority of the people who read the Echo or the Citizen do so just once a week.

"Daily readership is coming more and more from our website Gloucestershire Live and our digital audience - not just on the site but across social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter - is showing amazing year-on-year growth. And our digital advertising revenues are growing at the same rate.

"By making this change, we're acknowledging and reacting to how our readers behave."

She added: "The new weekly editions of the Echo and Citizen will be modern, busy and campaigning titles. They will be a comprehensive compendium of the week's news with extra analysis, sport and lifestyle coverage.

"We will keep our Tewkesbury and Forest editions and add a new edition for Stroud. As part of the package, print readers will also get a new county-wide property guide and our popular GL magazine.

"The new editions will be good for advertisers, too, giving them a much-improved response and coverage of the county."

Liberal Democrat leader on Gloucester City Council, Cllr Jeremy Hilton (pictured) claimed it was "a sad day for local democracy."

He said: "The Citizen is part of the fabric of Gloucester's rich heritage and has played a very important role in holding the rich and powerful to account in the city for many, may years.

"It will be a sad day when Gloucester will no longer have a daily newspaper serving the city. I have grown up reading The Citizen and I can fondly remember delivering it as a paperboy.

"The Citizen is a fine newspaper with many good, good people working for it and I can only hope it will thrive being published just once a week."

Sam Holliday, the Federation of Small Businesses' development manager for Gloucestershire and the West of England, was formerly Editor of the Bath Chronicle and led its conversion from a daily to a weekly newspaper in 2005.

He said local daily newspapers with falling circulations had to take action - or risk disappearing completely which was something no one wanted to see.

"I think this decision (to go weekly) could revitalise the newspapers in Gloucestershire and give them a fighting chance," he said. "It is an exciting prospect from a newspaper point of view."

Kevan Blackadder(pictured) editor of the Gloucestershire Echo from 2008 to 2014 and now director of Cheltenham Business Improvement District, said: "It's a sad day for the Echo and its readers. During my time as editor, there were discussions on whether a weekly model should be considered. The business case could always be made for it remaining as a daily title.

"However, print sales have continued to fall at the same time as digital audiences have risen so that business model was always going to be more difficult to maintain. In many ways, this day was inevitable.

"I'm very sorry to hear that up to five jobs will be lost as a result of the changes. Whichever departments the job losses are in, the Echo and Citizen need journalists on the ground and in the production teams to produce the quality journalism that Gloucestershire needs and demands.

"I'm sure the weekly Echo can be a great product and wish everyone involved the very best for the future. The challenge will be to ensure that the advertising revenue the daily print products generated can be replicated online."

The Gloucester Citizen's circulation fell by 19.9 per cent to 8,771 year on year and the Gloucestershire Echo's circulation dropped by 17.1 per cent to 8,124, according to figures published by Press Gazette earlier this year.

UK regional daily newspapers lost average print sales of 12.5 per cent.

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