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ABC figures: How each regional daily performed

All UK regional dailies posted a decrease in sales for the first half of 2012 according to figures released today.

The best-performing daily titles were the two Channel Island papers, the Jersey Evening Post and Guernsey Evening Press, which each recorded a 1pc decrease.

On mainland Britain, the Western Morning News topped the league table with a 2.4pc year-on-year fall in circulation in the period January to June.

Here’s how each of the UK regional daily titles performed. The list includes several Johnston Press titles which have gone weekly since the period under review.

England

Western Morning News 30,325 -2.4pc
The Echo (Southend, Basildon, Castle Point) 29,125 -3.3pc
Yorkshire Post 37,833 -4.7pc
Burton Mail 11,612 -4.8pc
Hull Daily Mail 41,222 -5.3pc
Cambridge News 19,860 -5.4pc
Liverpool Echo 80,762 -5.5pc
Colchester Gazette 15,259 -5.6pc
Gloucestershire Echo 14,999 -5.6pc
Sheffield Star & Green ‘Un 35,089 -5.8pc
Southern Daily Echo 29,973 -6.2pc
Newcastle Evening Chronicle 49,199 -6.3pc
Dorset Echo 16,313 -6.4pc
The Press, York 24,312 -6.5pc
The Northern Echo 38,479 -6.6pc
Swindon Advertiser 16,837 -6.8pc
Derby Telegraph 30,137 -6.9pc
The Citizen, Gloucester 18,501 -7.1pc
Worcester News 13,305 -7.2pc
Bournemouth Daily Echo 24,825 -7.4pc
Northampton Chronicle & Echo 15,197 -7.4pc
Yorkshire Evening Post 33,805 -7.4pc
Huddersfield Daily Examiner 18,971 -7.6pc
Oxford Mail 17,556 -7.9pc
Western Daily Press 26,053 -8pc
Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph 17,018 -8.2pc
Carlisle News and Star (East) 11,271 -8.3pc
Grimsby Telegraph 23,791 -8.4pc
Liverpool Daily Post 7,519 -8.5pc
Teesside Evening Gazette 36,986 -8.8pc
North West Evening Mail 12,884 -8.8pc
Halifax Courier 14,272 -9.4pc
Shields Gazette 13,720 -9.5pc
Scarborough Evening News 9,914 -9.5pc
Coventry Telegraph 31,064 -9.6pc
Bradford Telegraph & Argus 24,163 -9.7pc
The Herald, Plymouth 26,803 -9.8pc
Hartlepool Mail 12,789 -9.9pc
The Bolton News 19,740 -10pc
The News, Portsmouth 37,257 -10.1pc
The Argus Brighton 22,399 -10.2pc
Lancashire Telegraph 20,870 -10.3pc
Peterborough Evening Telegraph 13,834 -10.5pc
Shropshire Star 49,751 -10.5pc
Birmingham Mail 42,252 -10.5pc
Sunderland Echo & Football Echo 29,366 -10.6pc
The Sentinel 45,343 -10.7pc
Leicester Mercury 45,465 -11.1pc
Oldham Evening Chronicle 12,849 -11.1pc
The Journal, Newcastle 23,291 -11.4pc
Express & Star, Wolverhampton 100,244 -11.4pc
Bristol Evening Post 33,784 -11.9pc
Lancashire Evening Post 20,379 -12.1pc
Wigan Evening Post 6,213 -12.4pc
Carlisle News and Star (West) 4,302 -12.9pc
The Gazette, Blackpool 19,185 -13.1pc
Manchester Evening News 78,984 -13.2pc
Nottingham Post 30,648 -13.3pc
The Post, Bristol 32,996 -13.9pc
Doncaster Star 1,931 -17pc
Eastern Daily Press Pending
Norwich Evening News Pending
East Anglian Daily Times Pending
Ipswich Evening Star Pending
Ipswich Star Pending
Wales
Daily Post, North Wales 30,585 -3.8pc
The Leader (Wrexham, Flintshire & Chester) 15,314 -5.1pc
The Western Mail 25,435 -5.6pc
South Wales Echo 30,178 -7.9pc
South Wales Argus 21,437 -8.1pc
South Wales Evening Post 36,623 -8.8pc
Scotland
Press & Journal, Aberdeen 68,659 -3.4pc
Dundee Evening Telegraph 22,496 -4.8pc
Greenock Telegraph 13,470 -6.1pc
Paisley Daily Express 6,887 -8.6pc
Dundee Courier & Advertiser 56,243 -9.3pc
Aberdeen Evening Express 43,067 -10pc
Edinburgh Evening News 35,611 -10.9pc
Glasgow Evening Times 45,942 -12.3pc
Northern Ireland
Irish News 42,084 -3.6pc
News Letter 22,198 -5.5pc
Sunday Journal 2,375 -7.5pc
Belfast Telegraph 53,847 -9.2pc
Sunday Life 48,746 -11.5pc
Channel Islands
Guernsey Press & Star 15,013 -1pc
Jersey Evening Post 17,912 -1pc

11 comments

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  • August 29, 2012 at 1:31 pm
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    Nottingham Post – 30,000 copies per day!
    What the hell has been going on there?
    Figures are frightening and when 5% drop is good it just confirms your worst fears

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  • August 29, 2012 at 1:32 pm
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    It’s interesting that regional daily circulations are dropping at a much lower rate than the nationals.
    This would be the ideal time for regional dailies to remodel themselves on American lines, where metropolitan papers serve as local, national and international news sources.
    With the right formula, regional dailies could capitalise on the failings of the ‘Londoncentric’ nationals and produce papers truly relevant to their own readerships.
    Unfortunately, many regional operations are burdened down by poor management, where blinkered accountants and former ad reps are in all the top management jobs.
    It’s no accident that the Western Morning News is doing so well. It’s a very good paper in which editorial still counts for something. Good luck to them.

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  • August 29, 2012 at 2:18 pm
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    What’s difference between The Post Bristol and Bristol evening Post

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  • August 29, 2012 at 2:22 pm
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    The Nottingham Post now appears to sell only 500 more copies than the Derby Telegraph.

    I would guess that in the ‘old days’ the Post outsold the Telegraph by something like two to one. In recent times the Telegraph has overtaken the Post in quality of content, and it seems that pro-rata it has proved more successful in holding on to readers.

    The Post always had the feel of a big city newspaper, especially when it was based in the city centre. Its decline, which will surely see it become a weekly if the alarming fall in circulation is not reversed, is for me one of the saddest aspects of the crisis in the newspaper world.

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  • August 29, 2012 at 2:37 pm
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    I think regional dailies are entering the Twilight Zone when ‘success’ is measured by unrelenting, comparative declines in circulation. It’s like watching a string of stricken people hanging on to a cliff face by their fingernails. One by one they drop off – to become weeklies or close – and there is no rescue plan in place. Sad and horrible.

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  • August 29, 2012 at 4:38 pm
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    I was circulation director on the Post in the late nineties, sales were over 100,000 copies a day then!
    Must be one of the biggest declines in the business?

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  • August 29, 2012 at 5:59 pm
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    Nottingham Post 30,648 -13.3pc
    The Post, Bristol 32,996 -13.9pc

    OMG !!!!!!!

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  • August 30, 2012 at 6:13 pm
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    Bob from Burnley suggests we try the “American model” of providing local, national and international news in our regional dailies. No need – just follow the old Nottingham Evening Post model of yesteryear when with ten editions providing just that and beating the nationals with major stories time after time, thanks to the afternoon publication advantage, it sold up to 130,000 copies a night. Even though a survey showed more than 30% of Post readers did not buy a national paper, the “brains” decided a decade or so ago to cut national and international news to just a token amount. OK, the internet revolution would still have hit hard but this and other balmy decisions meant the Post started from a weak position, hence why it is always at the top of the league these days for circulation decline. The tiny staff are working their socks off to try to keep it afloat but just ask former readers why they don’t buy it any more.

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  • September 3, 2012 at 10:18 am
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    At what point does a daily decide that it’s time to go twice weekly or weekly?

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  • September 3, 2012 at 11:04 am
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    Bob from Bunley and Ian James, the Shropshire Star provides pages of national, international, celebrity rubbish and sport, as well as a daily TV guide, and it’s still lost more than 10 per cent of its readership. Back to the drawing board on that theory.

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  • September 3, 2012 at 4:57 pm
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    True, Former Hack, the Express and Star does that and its sales are still massive compared with other regionals. Of course, it has been hit by the switch to online but it started from a much stronger position when the internet began to take over. Regional dailies are doomed but the Express and Star will survive for much longer than the others.

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