Two 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 |
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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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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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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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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