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"At Easter time we launched the Monday to Friday morning compact edition of the Belfast Telegraph, which has contributed to our sale for the past three months. The evening edition remains broadsheet, so we're a very unusual regional newspaper, because we produce a full morning compact as well as afternoon broadsheet editions."

The Liverpool Daily Post benefited from a 2.4 per cent increase Monday to Friday and 1.3 per cent Monday to Saturday when it re-launched in 2004.

Mark Thomas, acting editor, said: "There was a dramatic redesign, the launch of several new editorial supplements and a large increase in the number of pages. The broad aim of the re-launch was to target ABC1 readers, and to combat a lingering perception identified in research in 2002 that the paper was old-fashioned.

"While our reinvention involved the whole newspaper operation - including a promotional and distributional drive - it was exceptional journalism that was at the heart of our success."

George Robinson, editor of the Worksop Guardian, also put the newspaper's 9.4 per cent increase down to a re-launch: "We took one of our free newspaper titles covering the neighbouring South Yorkshire area, just over the border from Worksop in North Notts, and turned it into a full-blown 80-page paid-for edition of the Worksop Guardian.

"This, combined with our usual meticulous approach to reporting on local issues in great depth, has resulted in a large sales surge for the Guardian and continues our impressive year-on-year rises during the past six years."

Regional newspapers are also attributing their ABC successes to coverage of local issues which affect their readers.

The Carlisle News & Star (East) has benefited from focusing on local news, experiencing a three per cent increase Monday to Friday and 2.8 per cent Monday to Saturday.

Editor Keith Sutton said: "Much of the success is down to the News & Star being a local paper with real local news reflecting local people issues.