Indy's tabloid switch cost 12m

<i>The Independent</i>s move to a tabloid format cost less than an eighth of <i>The Guardian</i>s switch to a Berliner, according to accounts released this week.

An Independent News and Media group financial report for the year to 31 December 2004 and filed this week at Companies House showed exceptional product development costs of 6.1m in 2004 and 6.3m in 2003.

The newspaper, printed by Trinity Mirror's plants in Watford, Oldham and Saltire, downsized to the tabloid format in September 2003, before dropping the broadsheet edition in May 2004.

The combined 12.4m cost of the exercise has boosted circulation by around 50,000 since the tabloid launch, to a figure of 267,037 in October.

In comparison, The Guardian spent 100m on its Berliner launch this year, for a circulation uplift of around 60,000 to 403,297 in October.