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Top-performing regional daily goes overnight

The top-performing English regional daily according to last week’s ABC figures has moved to overnight printing.

The Norwich Evening News is to be printed just before midnight from this week, instead of its previous 8am print time, meaning the paper will hit the newsstands from the morning.

The News was one of just three UK regional dailies to record an increase in circulation in the figures published last week, which saw its sales rise 0.5pc to 18,923.

Readers have been told about the changes in a series of articles which highlight the longer shelf life it will give its paper, the money it will save and benefits to the environment because deliveries can be combined with those of sister title the Eastern Daily Press.

The changes come after Archant announced plans to move printing of its Norfolk and Suffolk titles to a single night shift at its Thorpe Print Centre, near Norwich, and outsource printing of its other titles, putting up to 50 jobs at risk.

Evening News editor Tim Williams held a series of drop-in sessions for readers last week so they could give their views on the changes.

An article in the Evening News last week about the changed print time said: “At the moment, almost all of the newspaper, with the exception of the front page and the back pages, are completed the previous day.

“But from Monday, all of the newspaper will go to our presses in Thorpe at about midnight to ensure the paper is in the shops from the morning.

“Because the Evening News will be on the shelves earlier in the day it will give more people the opportunity to become readers and will be available all day.

“We’re not alone in doing this. Many other traditional ‘evening’ newspapers around Britain have gone down this route.

“As well as the technological changes which have prompted this move, it will also enable us to save money – vital in the recession and with the cost of newsprint increasing by 20pc in the past year.”

Combining deliveries of Archant Norfolk’s two daily titles is expected to cut more than two million miles a year from its van runs.

18 comments

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  • March 1, 2011 at 9:09 am
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    Er, can someone remind me of the regional ‘evening’ newspaper that has put on sales since going overnight? Brighton? Er, nope. Coventry? Er, nope. Birmingham? Er, nope. Cardiff? You’re kidding. Good luck, Norwich, but I’m pretty sure your 0.5%+ figure will be your last positive circulation report because of this news.

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  • March 1, 2011 at 9:20 am
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    Sales of the Argus at Brighton, once a fine multi-edition paper, dived after it stopped being a proper daily regional and became a “next day” paper. Same applied to just about every other regional. It’s not the journos fault that when this happens it’s stale news hitting the streets. One regional has just carried a weak community story about a competition win that is eight days old. What a shame.

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  • March 1, 2011 at 9:38 am
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    Yeah, but the top-performing Express & Star and the Shropshire Star are still doing pretty good aren’t they? Oh, hold on a minute, someone’s just told me they are both still ‘live’, with meaningful pm, on-day deadlines… Ho hum.

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  • March 1, 2011 at 10:43 am
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    I think sales of the Telegraph & Argus in Bradford have halved in the five or so years since they messed around with print times and became effectively a morning paper.

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  • March 1, 2011 at 12:32 pm
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    Yep same sad story with the Swindon Advertiser, bringing you yesterday’s news the day after tomorrow is not the way forward. It will all end in tears!

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  • March 1, 2011 at 12:50 pm
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    But the new print time will of course ‘help the environment’. Hilarious!

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  • March 1, 2011 at 12:52 pm
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    Can any fellow HTFP reader tell me which regional dailies still print on the day of issue rather than overnight? Also, although it may seem a rather naive question, how do you differentiate now between the ‘sister’ papers in cities where there is both a ‘morning’ and an ‘evening’? Publication times are just a little bit different from my early days, when a verdict phoned from outside the court well after 4pm could get into either the box or even into the page on the late town edition. Shows my age.

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  • March 1, 2011 at 12:57 pm
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    Maybe HTFP should ask the Evening News how it managed to record a circulation increase, the answer may surprise. It would be good if they renamed it Yesterday’s Evening News, although that would be pushing it a bit as well.

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  • March 1, 2011 at 2:04 pm
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    Another ridiculous move. People don’t want yesterday’s news today. That’s why the Express and Star and Shropshire Star are still doing relatively well. They remain ‘proper’ regional daily papers. And I say that as an ex-employee who hates the way they look as well as their editorial policies / management styles!

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  • March 1, 2011 at 2:10 pm
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    Doesn’t this bring unification with the Eastern Daily Press a step nearer? What’s the point of having two morning papers? The Evening News doesn’t sell that much and most of the functions of the two papers have already merged. Why do people try and sell this as good news. Paper “goes” overnight might be a interesting prediction.

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  • March 1, 2011 at 2:20 pm
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    Althought it is nothing to do with this story, does nobody think it odd that the only two regional daily papers in England to gain circulation in the latest ABCs were the Evening News and the Eastern Daily Press, both published by Archant in Norwich?

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  • March 1, 2011 at 4:10 pm
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    Goodnight, then. I wonder how many of those added copies were craft freebies or promotional specials. After the initial burst of ‘oh, this isn’t usually out in the morning’ sales I imagine that 19,000 will be tumbling rapidly.

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  • March 2, 2011 at 10:01 am
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    Ageing fast: I am even older, having retired gracefully from madhouse that is modern journalism. I can remember phoning copy over from a freezing cold call box at 7.28, two mins before a 7.30 am deadline; one of three daily deadlines. Working on “mornings” must be rather dull. I always think working for a proper “live” evening paper was more fun than than a national, which is after all a “next day” paper. Young hacks don’t know what they are missing. Those were the days my friend We thought they’d never end. But they are!

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  • March 2, 2011 at 10:59 am
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    As well as the technological changes which have prompted this move, it will also enable us to save money. nuff said on that issue! The industry died for me was the day our Saturday sports paper went as the on-site press shot. Nothing beat deadlines, especially when big things were happening – the buzz til final edition went was massive. As someone mentions, youngsters have no idea what was so great about this industry. It’s just another office job now instead of a way of life that everyone wanted to be a part of.

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  • March 2, 2011 at 1:47 pm
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    It certainly isn’t what it used to be, Scott. An overnight regional will generally have to wait until Monday to report on a serious incident breaking late on Friday night. It’s pathetic. Everybody knows that incidents sell far more regional papers than any ‘exclusive’ or council scandal. People want to know who died and what caused the traffic jams. Most provincials now supply this with a lag of several days. What the Norwich Evening News is doing will save money but not sales. There’s no evidence from anywhere else in the country that two hours extra on the shelves does anything to offset the inevitable loss of quality in the product.

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  • March 2, 2011 at 1:58 pm
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    When I were a lad on the Brighton Argus, by 7am I’d be knocking on some door with an alsation barking behind it, with Jerry Casswell ready to snatch a pic, and it would all be written and devved up by 8am and on the press a few minutes later for the first edition! Aye, we had it tough.

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  • March 2, 2011 at 2:06 pm
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    I used to sit in editorial conferences with newspaper sales people 20 years ago listening to them tell us how our evening paper would sell more if it was out earlier. They were wrong then and they are wrong now.

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  • March 2, 2011 at 3:58 pm
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    To claim The Argus in Brighton’s downfall was due to changing stone times is ludicrous. It fell apart when the latest “hot shot” editor (since disappeared), decided to reinvent the wheel and aimed the product at 32 year old yummy mummies. They took an editorial decision to “ignore the big housing estates” thereby ostracising most of their readers. Millions spent, the paper collapsed, the Editor went. It has never recovered.

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