Northern Ireland’s biggest selling regional daily appears to have steadied its circulation after a previous rapid decline.

Sales at the Belfast Telegraph decreased by just 1pc in the six months to June, compared to a fall of 10.5pc for the same period last year.

According to the latest ABCs for Ireland, which have been published today, the average circulation for the newspaper was 67,353.

The newspaper appointed Mike Gilson as its new editor last September, replacing Martin Lindsay who retired.

Mike told HTFP: “What really pleases me is that in these difficult times we are still fighting the fight in Belfast.

“We’ve launched new supplements, embarked on campaigns that have captured our readers’ imaginations, we’ve marched on Stormont with them and our journalists have tackled some really big stories exceptionally well.

“We’re the Northern Irish newspaper of the year because of this. It’s about continuing to invest in and nuture the content. Is there any other way?”

Mike was previously the editor at The Scotsman, The News, Portsmouth, and the Peterborough Evening Telegraph.

Of the other regional titles, the Irish News saw its circulation fall by 2.9pc compared to last year, while the News Letter experienced a drop of 3.6pc.

The Tyrone Times saw the biggest increase of the fully paid-for weeklies at 6.6pc to 3,661, while a handful of other titles saw small rises.

Of the paid-for weeklies, the Lurgan Mail had the largest fall in circulation at 7.3pc.

Comments

Onlooker (19/08/2010 15:39:23)
Irish titles seem to have lower circulation falls than those in England, Scotland & Wales. Why? Any theories?