The Yorkshire Post topped the ABC league tables for the lowest circulation decline over the second half of 2016 as all UK regional dailies posted falls in average sales.
Average daily circulation for print and digital editions at the Leeds-based title fell 3.6pc in the period July to December 2016 to stand at 25,178.
Also performing relatively strongly were the Irish News, down 3.9pc, and the South Wales Argus, which showed a drop of 5.8pc.
But the YP’s Johnston Press stablemate the Yorkshire Evening Post saw sales fall by 19.2pc, while pro-Scottish independence daily The National – last year’s sales success story – posted a 30pc drop.
The Express & Star, Wolverhampton, remains the UK’s biggest selling regional daily title with an average daily sale of 55,373, ahead of Aberdeen’s Press & Journal with 51,880.
Circulation figures for all UK regional dailies, in order of the change year-on-year, are as follows. Scroll down for a version of the table showing the titles in order of actual circulation.
| Title | Total | YoY% |
| Yorkshire Post | 25,178 | -3.6 |
| Irish News | 35,523 | -3.9 |
| South Wales Argus | 10,808 | -5.8 |
| Paisley Daily Express | 4,800 | -6 |
| Belfast Telegraph | 40,042 | -6.5 |
| News Letter | 15,475 | -6.9 |
| Cambridge News | 12,991 | -7.7 |
| Aberdeen Press & Journal | 51,880 | -8.1 |
| Colchester Daily Gazette | 9,693 | -8.1 |
| Carlisle News and Star West | 2,664 | -8.4 |
| Swindon Advertiser | 9,562 | -8.4 |
| Dundee Courier | 39,324 | -8.6 |
| Oxford Mail | 10,184 | -8.9 |
| Greenock Telegraph | 9,555 | -9.1 |
| Worcester News | 7,130 | -9.2 |
| Grimsby Telegraph | 16,406 | -9.4 |
| Hull Daily Mail | 27,054 | -9.6 |
| The Bolton News | 9,607 | -9.6 |
| Dorset Echo | 10,196 | -9.7 |
| Essex Echo | 18,373 | -9.7 |
| Manchester Evening News | 47,052 | -9.8 |
| Norwich Evening News | 9,172 | -10 |
| Leicester Mercury | 25,859 | -10.1 |
| The Herald | 28,872 | -10.2 |
| Eastern Daily Press | 34,438 | -10.5 |
| Aberdeen Evening Express | 25,744 | -10.6 |
| The Northern Echo | 23,971 | -10.7 |
| Derby Telegraph | 18,903 | -10.8 |
| Western Morning News | 19,842 | -10.9 |
| Sheffield Star | 16,708 | -11 |
| Dundee Telegraph | 14,971 | -11.2 |
| The Argus, Brighton | 11,079 | -11.2 |
| Western Daily Press | 15,544 | -11.4 |
| East Anglian Daily Times | 15,852 | -11.4 |
| Nottingham Post | 17,524 | -11.6 |
| Bournemouth Daily Echo | 13,579 | -11.7 |
| Burton Mail | 7,806 | -11.7 |
| Express & Star | 55,373 | -11.7 |
| Ipswich Star | 10,138 | -11.7 |
| Shropshire Star | 26,752 | -11.7 |
| Teesside Gazette | 21,174 | -11.7 |
| Lancashire Telegraph | 11,077 | -12.1 |
| The Press, York | 14,608 | -12.2 |
| Bradford Telegraph & Argus | 13,951 | -12.3 |
| Newcastle Chronicle | 26,811 | -12.3 |
| The News, Portsmouth | 19,797 | -12.6 |
| North West Evening Mail | 7,744 | -12.8 |
| Carlisle News and Star East | 6,701 | -12.8 |
| Southern Daily Echo | 16,369 | -12.8 |
| Lancashire Evening Post | 10,751 | -13.2 |
| South Wales Evening Post | 21,031 | -13.5 |
| Plymouth Herald | 16,350 | -13.8 |
| The Sentinel | 26,657 | -13.9 |
| Oldham Evening Chronicle | 6,812 | -14.5 |
| The Scotsman | 19,449 | -14.5 |
| Glasgow Evening Times | 23,696 | -14.6 |
| South Wales Echo | 15,140 | -15 |
| Edinburgh Evening News | 18,362 | -15.8 |
| Sunderland Echo | 12,825 | -15.9 |
| Liverpool Echo | 44,427 | -16.2 |
| The Post, Bristol | 17,381 | -16.4 |
| The Gazette, Blackpool | 9,537 | -16.9 |
| Coventry Telegraph | 15,160 | -17.1 |
| Gloucestershire Echo | 8,124 | -17.1 |
| Yorkshire Evening Post | 16,108 | -19.2 |
| Gloucester Citizen | 8,771 | -19.9 |
| Birmingham Mail | 19,200 | -20.9 |
| Shields Gazette | 5,584 | -22.3 |
| Hartlepool Mail | 5,070 | -22.8 |
| The National | 10,380 | -30.9 |
| Wigan Evening Post | 2,382 | -35.7 |
| Daily Post (Wales) | 22,251 | N/A |
| Huddersfield Daily Examiner | 12,351 | N/A |
| Newcastle Journal | 12,587 | N/A |
| The Western Mail | 15,697 | N/A |
Figures for regional dailies in order of actual average circulation are as follows:
| Title | Total | YoY% |
| Express & Star | 55,373 | -11.7 |
| Aberdeen Press & Journal | 51,880 | -8.1 |
| Manchester Evening News | 47,052 | -9.8 |
| Liverpool Echo | 44,427 | -16.2 |
| Belfast Telegraph | 40,042 | -6.5 |
| Dundee Courier | 39,324 | -8.6 |
| Irish News | 35,523 | -3.9 |
| Eastern Daily Press | 34,438 | -10.5 |
| The Herald | 28,872 | -10.2 |
| Hull Daily Mail | 27,054 | -9.6 |
| Newcastle Chronicle | 26,811 | -12.3 |
| Shropshire Star | 26,752 | -11.7 |
| The Sentinel | 26,657 | -13.9 |
| Leicester Mercury | 25,859 | -10.1 |
| Aberdeen Evening Express | 25,744 | -10.6 |
| Yorkshire Post | 25,178 | -3.6 |
| The Northern Echo | 23,971 | -10.7 |
| Glasgow Evening Times | 23,696 | -14.6 |
| Daily Post (Wales) | 22,251 | N/A |
| Teesside Gazette | 21,174 | -11.7 |
| South Wales Evening Post | 21,031 | -13.5 |
| Western Morning News | 19,842 | -10.9 |
| The News, Portsmouth | 19,797 | -12.6 |
| The Scotsman | 19,449 | -14.5 |
| Birmingham Mail | 19,200 | -20.9 |
| Derby Telegraph | 18,903 | -10.8 |
| Essex Echo | 18,373 | -9.7 |
| Edinburgh Evening News | 18,362 | -15.8 |
| Nottingham Post | 17,524 | -11.6 |
| The Post, Bristol | 17,381 | -16.4 |
| Sheffield Star | 16,708 | -11 |
| Grimsby Telegraph | 16,406 | -9.4 |
| Southern Daily Echo | 16,369 | -12.8 |
| Plymouth Herald | 16,350 | -13.8 |
| Yorkshire Evening Post | 16,108 | -19.2 |
| East Anglian Daily Times | 15,852 | -11.4 |
| The Western Mail | 15,697 | N/A |
| Western Daily Press | 15,544 | -11.4 |
| News Letter | 15,475 | -6.9 |
| Coventry Telegraph | 15,160 | -17.1 |
| South Wales Echo | 15,140 | -15 |
| Dundee Telegraph | 14,971 | -11.2 |
| The Press, York | 14,608 | -12.2 |
| Bradford Telegraph & Argus | 13,951 | -12.3 |
| Bournemouth Daily Echo | 13,579 | -11.7 |
| Cambridge News | 12,991 | -7.7 |
| Sunderland Echo | 12,825 | -15.9 |
| Newcastle Journal | 12,587 | N/A |
| Huddersfield Daily Examiner | 12,351 | N/A |
| The Argus, Brighton | 11,079 | -11.2 |
| Lancashire Telegraph | 11,077 | -12.1 |
| South Wales Argus | 10,808 | -5.8 |
| Lancashire Evening Post | 10,751 | -13.2 |
| The National | 10,380 | -30.9 |
| Dorset Echo | 10,196 | -9.7 |
| Oxford Mail | 10,184 | -8.9 |
| Ipswich Star | 10,138 | -11.7 |
| Colchester Daily Gazette | 9,693 | -8.1 |
| The Bolton News | 9,607 | -9.6 |
| Swindon Advertiser | 9,562 | -8.4 |
| Greenock Telegraph | 9,555 | -9.1 |
| The Gazette, Blackpool | 9,537 | -16.9 |
| Norwich Evening News | 9,172 | -10 |
| Gloucester Citizen | 8,771 | -19.9 |
| Gloucestershire Echo | 8,124 | -17.1 |
| Burton Mail | 7,806 | -11.7 |
| North West Evening Mail | 7,744 | -12.8 |
| Worcester News | 7,130 | -9.2 |
| Oldham Evening Chronicle | 6,812 | -14.5 |
| Carlisle News and Star East | 6,701 | -12.8 |
| Shields Gazette | 5,584 | -22.3 |
| Hartlepool Mail | 5,070 | -22.8 |
| Paisley Daily Express | 4,800 | -6 |
| Carlisle News and Star West | 2,664 | -8.4 |
| Wigan Evening Post | 2,382 | -35.7 |
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Another huge 10% sales loss for the EDP on the back of a rapid steady and ongoing decline,and with the dreadful reader written evening news now selling little over 9,000 copies we are all wondering just how long they will allow these two once credible titles to continue in print form, our guess here is they’ll both move to online editions only by year end at latest and in the case of the NEN odds on it’ll be closed ahead of then, unless of course they have money to burn by keep throwing money at them propping them up while the rest of the company counts paoerclips.
Just how far can these papers fall before action is taken?
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Interesting to note that the Yorkshire Post is one of the few regionals to maintain a team of staff photographers. Perhaps this is part of the reason why that newspaper is performing “relatively strongly”?
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Archants two Norfolk and two Suffolk dailies in complete free fall and the weekly titles withering on the vine but at least it diverts attention away from the 30 jobs being axed in ad creation and the sub contracting ad designs to a call centre in Mumbai
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Three weeks ago, JP’s trading update said:
“The Scotsman, which recently marked its 200th anniversary, has seen print sales growth of 2pc year on year…”
Erm, there’s a rabbit off somewhere.
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It’s interesting to note how few comments these latest shocking ABC sales figures attract these days when not so long ago losses this bad would have been big news attracting many views,comments and opinions from those passionate about their own local titles to tale the time to post.
could it be we accept there’s no way back from the implosion that’s been happening in the regional press ?
Could it be that we are no longer surprised to see once mighty titles in complete free fall and just accept this is their fate?
If so it makes you wonder what long term future if any, many of these papers have?
with no sign of any reversal of sales trends and no investment in these papers are we just treading water and accepting they’ll continue to decline to such an extent that decisions will need to be taken as to whether they are allowed to continue or if the plug is finally pulled to save costs.
maybe they’ll carry on bumping along the bottom losing money and run their course losing what few readers remained until their audiences completely go while we just sit back watching them slowly die
This must surely be the end of traditional local regional papers as we know them as they’ve fallen so far down there’s clearly no way back up.
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Some of these once admirable papers are showing a drop of 90 per cent from their peak sales (albeit some time ago). How can papers in large town-cities like Brighton (11,000 a day) and Nottingham (17,000) sell so few papers. Some papers like this were selling more than 100,000 a day at their peak.
Still, the web will save us all.
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@Norridge As REM once put it: “This is the end of the world as we know it…”
These figures are so shocking that even Dick Minim (remember him?) has clearly been stunned into silence…
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The shock element has gone as we are all so used to seeing huge losses in copy sales going back 3-4 years that it’s become the norm, it’s a sad state of affairs that the ‘best performing ‘ title is the one that’s lost the least readers over the last six months
Also I wouldn’t want to be an ad rep trying to sell adverts no one will see in papers so few are buying and where prices are still as high as they were in the good times, at Archant the reps even have to speak to someone in India to make proof changes
Just a matter of time before boards at publishers up and down the country realise there’s no point throwing good money after bad and carrying on with papers no one wants
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I’m sorry but why is this a surprise … the managements see the print making things as a distraction. I’m told they barely have meetings any more in some cases, just thrown together by subs while everyone stands round screens looking at clicks.
The questions not answered include:
1 If digital is so great, why is anyone still doing print?
(Answer, digital is not making money if you factor in overheads)
2 With all the digital figures touted around, who is investigating the ‘quality’ … my regional paper seems to be simply bait for morons who call for people to be hanged or who remark that such and such school was s***.
3 Has any analysis been done on ad blocker? Do advertisers get told? Some estimates show it is huge. Here’s a quote from the States:
“From 2015-2017, the number of U.S. smartphone owners using adblocking technology is projected to more than double, according to eMarketer.”
Digital marketers see ad blocking as a ‘grave threat’.
The whole thing is crazy … print, done correctly, delivered effectively and priced sensibly (or free) still works really well. Digital is just a mess and it makes peanuts … certainly not enough t sustain a big city office with lots of staff.
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Norridge, It is more like the end of those regional papers taken over by large corporates, who have ransacked them and their communities for every last penny. They are anything but the traditional regional press. Look hard enough and you will see there are still some independent papers who offer quality news and a quality readership.
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You’re correct about some of the smaller independent publishers returning good figures Fleetwood and they very much are the way ahead for what’s left of regional daily or eeekly publishing in the U.K., it’s the larger groups, not just the ones taken over , which have incurred huge overheads carry huge staff numbers, multi layer of management and are entrenched in old methods that are in the downward spiral of low copy sales against hog overheads.
Where I am ( clue in the name) there are so many managers or commercial this that and the other in their titles doing little, contributing nothing yet enjoying high salaries and packages which are a burden on the company costs. We have some terrific independent newspapers and glossy magazines in the area competing for ad revenues , run well,controlling costs and working with advertisers and community’s to great effect, they will flourish while the bigger players thrash around losing sales,readers and advertisers,having meetings and with changed priorities almost daily which will crash and burn in double quick time
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Looking at this sorry tale of woe Archie, I would think many papers would be quite relieved to only have a 10 per cent drop in circulation. In particular my former paper, the Birmingham Mail, has lost another 21 per cent and now averages just 19,200! A very sorry state of affairs indeed.
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Some small free papers with a handful of staff are wiping sales off rival paid fors. They simply know their market better.
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When I read comments like suebrown’s I just groan with despair. It’s just like stick your fingers in your ears and shouting ‘la la la, there’s nothing wrong with print!’. Of course there is!
Yes, print still makes money for traditional publishers and, yes, the lion’s share of it too but compare the actual figures from 10 years ago. It’s fallen off a cliff!
Now, look at digital revenue. It makes money, albeit a much smaller percentage than that of print but compare those figures from 10 years ago. Massive increase!
So, as an investor, which would you put your money into over the next decade?
Judging by the figures above, a large number of these titles will be unsustainable in print within five years and it’s unlikely that even the largest ones will be selling 20,000 copies.
This is NOTHING to do with lack of investment in print. It’s simply to do with a changing marketplace and competition, especially from all manner of digital niches.
The ad blocking ‘issue’ is usually trotted out by die-hard print journalists pushing doom and gloom about digital. Ad blockers are commercial entities so why are most applications free? This is because they all have ‘whitelists’. In fact, one of the largest, Adblock Plus, has its own ‘acceptable ads’ platform.
What they’ll do is take additional information from their users then only serve them adverts which are most relevant to them. Digital publishers will just end up pricing their CPM, CPC and CPA inventory differently to use this additional targeted user information to their advantage. Readers get fewer irrelevant ads, advertisers get a better ROI and publishers make more money. Everyone’s a winner!
Digital is not a mess. It’s evolving at great speed and new opportunities come and go every day. You can’t say that about print!
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It seems that whenever anyone talks about digital income making a “massive increase” we never see the cash figures. So we are left to assume (rightly or wrongly) that hard copy is still making more cash even though it is on the slide.
Massive percentages do not equate to huge amounts of money. A quid raised to £1.50 is a massive 50 per cent rise. But it still ain’t a lot of money.
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Good points Oliver
Without doubt regional print as you say , however much one denies it,dress it up or cut it , is dead,and majority of the titles listed above will be gone unless the publishers falsely prop them up, I think it will also be much less than 5 years. I just don’t believe print media publishers and the commercial staff ( the ones I speak to anyway including managers) have grasped the medium, they were set up, tooled up, staffed up and trained in ‘newsprint’ , digital online is like chalk and cheese but they are stuck with a print medium infrastructure so are just shuffling the furniture and using what they’ve got but not making any progress.
Most will stagger along until the money runs out which if it relies on dwindling print revenues and minuscule digital money won’t be too long.
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Paperboy, you’re absolutely right. We need actual figures, so let’s take yesterday’s article about Trinity Mirror’s profits.
http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2017/news/profits-leap-25pc-at-trinity-mirror-following-local-world-deal/
Okay, revenue and profit are two very different things but lets look at the figures stated.
Print publishing revenues up from £485.9m to £581m and digital revenues up from £42.9m to £79m. That’s a 19 per cent increase and 84 per cent increase, respectively.
Now if that trend were to continue at the same pace (and, yes, that’s a big if) the actual figures for digital would be generating greater revenue than print by mid-2021.
Now, my guess would be that the growth of print revenues will slow, mainly due the state of newspaper sales as highlighted above, so where digital could be the main ‘bread-winner’ within four years!
Norridge makes good points about the lacking investment in editorial when it comes to digital but, at regional levels, I don’t think digital advertising will ever reach the heady highs of print. There are far too many competitors in that arena.
The regionals will continually consolidate titles to save costs and, as a result, small independents will fill those gaps. I hope that one day, what we’ll end up with is completely different low-profit local business models away from the hands of the regional publishers… but it’ll still all be about digital!
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