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Regional ABCs: How the regional press is faring on social media

VisiterTwo regional press titles more than doubled their reach on Facebook during the second half of 2016, according to the latest ABC Figures.

Both the Southport Visiter and the East Anglian Daily Times recorded year-on-year increases in the number of ‘likes’ of more than 100pc, while four others saw rises of 90pc or above.

On Twitter, where figures from multiple accounts run by the same newspaper are reported separately, the Eastern Daily Press’s account for sports news recorded a 221.7pc increase in ‘followers’, compared to a 45pc rise for the newspaper’s main account.

The Birmingham Mail’s was the main account scoring the highest increase, with its 209,939 ‘followers’ representing a 72.7pc increase when compared with the second half of 2015.

Data was submitted to the auditor by regional publishers Archant, the CN Group, the KM Group and the Midland News Association covering its titles’ social media performances.

Figures from Trinity Mirror, which already submits Facebook and Twitter reports to ABC on a monthly basis, were also included.

The full list of Facebook page likes, in order of year-on-year percentage change, is as follows.  Scroll down for the list of Twitter followers.

Facebook page No of likes Y-o-Y%
Southport Visiter 13,498 124.7
East Anglian Daily Times 9,392 103.9
Kent Online 65,385 99.1
North Wales Daily Post 171,064 96.2
Herts Advertiser 2,657 95.4
The Comet, Stevenage 12,052 92.8
East Kent Mercury 11,775 84.6
Newham Recorder 4,825 77.8
Norwich Evening News 14,633 76.7
Hackney Gazette 4,553 75.9
Wales Online 336,687 73.6
Wisbech Standard 2,997 73.1
Eastern Daily Press 76,067 69.8
Welwyn Hatfield Times 8,456 67.7
Ipswich Star 14,564 67.1
Ilford Recorder 4,154 66
Romford Recorder 12,522 63
Barking & Dagenham Post 10,998 61.8
North Norfolk News 4,674 58.7
Coventry Telegraph 39,290 55.4
Islington Gazette 3,674 54.2
Brent and Kilburn Times 5,300 53.8
Sittingbourne News Extra 3,564 52.4
Cambs Times 2,636 52.1
Ham and High Express 2,000 50.9
Thanet Extra 3,391 50.6
Manchester Evening News 1,263,751 48.5
Hunts Post 4,272 47.7
Kentish Express 10,866 45.6
Lowestoft Journal 9,733 43.9
Chronicle Live 217,067 42.7
Nottingham Post 82,195 41.8
Shropshire Star 33,230 41.4
Great Yarmouth Mercury 20,047 40.5
Dartford Messenger 8,215 40.3
Kent Messenger 27,490 35.4
Huddersfield Daily Examiner 80,816 34.3
Express & Star 109,523 31.5
Birmingham Mail 248,924 30.7
Sheerness Times Guardian 8,309 30.7
Kent on Sunday 233 29.4
Gravesend Messenger 11,230 27.1
Teesside Evening Gazette 106,256 24.2
Docklands & East London Advertiser 3,623 22.2
Kentish Gazette 11,738 20.7
Liverpool Echo 1,148,051 10.3
Hull Daily Mail 126,730 N/A
Bristol Post 110,877 N/A
Plymouth Herald 96,790 N/A
The Sentinel (Stoke) 83,666 N/A
South Wales Evening Post 74,303 N/A
Leicester Mercury 49,037 N/A
Derby Telegraph 45,229 N/A
Grimsby Telegraph 34,498 N/A
News & Star, Carlisle 34,296 N/A
Cambridge News 25,128 N/A
North West Evening Mail 20,681 N/A
Workington Times & Star 10,229 N/A
Hexham Courant 8,806 N/A
Whitehaven News 7,767 N/A

The full list of Twitter accounts, in order of year-on-year percentage change, is as follows:

Twitter page No of followers Y-o-y%
EDP Sport 9,932 221.7
Birmingham Mail 209,939 72.7
Kent Online 120,803 62.7
Wales Online 152,312 61.4
Coventry Telegraph 63,751 56.8
Chronicle Live 132,319 55.4
Express & Star 112,371 49.4
Teesside Evening Gazette 61,316 47.5
Shropshire Star 65,246 47.4
East Anglian Daily Times 38,683 46.6
Norwich Evening News 45,340 45.3
EDP24 77,787 45
Manchester Evening News 407,687 42
North Wales Daily Post 73,476 41.5
Folkestone Express 2,343 40.9
Barking & Dagenham Post 4,801 33
Huddersfield Daily Examiner 48,281 31.5
KM Newsroom 21,450 29.7
Newham Recorder 7,534 29.1
Liverpool Echo 325,437 28.2
East Kent Mercury 3,932 26.3
Islington Gazette 13,802 22.9
EDP Bride 2,166 22.1
Brent and Kilburn Times 7,284 21.9
Wisbech Standard 3,035 21.3
Cambs Times 4,254 20.3
EADT Business 1,895 19.2
Kentish Gazette 13,706 19
Ilford Recorder 7,541 19
Ipswich Star 16,409 18
Romford Recorder 13,818 18
Southport Visiter 8,752 18
North Norfolk News 9,057 17
KM Gravesend 6,064 17
Lowestoft Journal 5,971 17
Hunts Post 5,869 17
The Herts Advertiser 12,441 16.5
KM Sittingbourne 2,424 16.2
@KentishExpress 10,947 15.9
The Comet, Stevenage 13,315 15.8
Docklands & East London Advertiser 6,851 15.5
Thanet Extra 5,851 15.4
Ham and High Express 15,849 13.7
Hackney Gazette 20,761 13.2
The Reporter 2,271 13.2
Kent Business 12,548 12.9
Welwyn Hatfield Times 10,162 12.8
Great Yarmouth Mercury 5,932 12.5
Kent Sport 2,512 12
Kent on Sunday 8,505 11.5
EDP Business 9,932 11.4
Nottingham Post 108,952 N/A
Bristol Post 96,982 N/A
Leicester Mercury 82,758 N/A
Cambridge News 64,386 N/A
Hull Daily Mail 61,958 N/A
Derby Telegraph 59,815 N/A
Stoke Sentinel 56,803 N/A
South Wales Evening Post 55,589 N/A
Plymouth Herald 46,212 N/A
News & Star, Carlisle 25,381 N/A
Grimsby Telegraph 14,154 N/A
North West Evening Mail 10,808 N/A
Cumberland News 9,867 N/A
Hexham Courant 7,299 N/A
Whitehaven News 7,091 N/A
Workington Times & Star 6,741 N/A

4 comments

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  • February 23, 2017 at 3:23 pm
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    I’ll say it again ….
    ‘likes’ and publishing chiefs being hyper excited to have people reading their news and papers on line for free shows just how desperate things have become and how in denial these people are if they see that as a measure of success.

    just look at the just published ABC figures on HTFP and you’ll see all the papers mentioned in this piece have had further huge copy sales losses in the last six months, that’s revenues lost because they can get what news they want free and online

    Just who’s fooling who here ?

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  • February 24, 2017 at 9:27 am
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    I’ve realised that part of these Facebook and Twitter likes are by reporters being asked to include their friends in the newspaper’s figures.

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  • February 24, 2017 at 11:36 am
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    As with my earlier post with regards to the last ABC sales figures crash just published, it seems we are all both bored and de sensitised by the recent trend of bundling up print , web, social media …. even newsletters where I am god forbid,to artificially inflate the numbers and popularity of these clearly dying titles.
    To show excitement about someone clicking ‘like’ on Facebook or ‘follow’ on Twitter just shows how desperate things are when all that signifies is they’re happy to see the news feeds for free but not enough to pay for it
    If anything the reverse is probably more accurate and should be analysed, those with few likes or follows likely indicate healthier sales figures for a paid for product,
    But if business is that bad that someone taking your goods for free is seen as success we might as well all go home right now

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  • February 24, 2017 at 12:16 pm
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    I have 629 twitter followers, earns me ZERO.
    Yes these papers get click throughs, but the advertising revenue won’t sustain a newsroom. Glad I’m out of it now!

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