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ABC figures: Scottish and Irish weeklies lead way

Weekly newspapers in Scotland and Northern Ireland were among the best-performing paid-for titles in the industry over the past year according to today’s ABC figures.

Many of the weekly titles that put on big year-on-year circulation increases between December 2007 and December 2008 were either free titles or those that had adopted the part-free, part paid-for model.

They included the Gravesend Reporter, which posted an increase of 150pc, the Scunthorpe Target, up 85pc, and the Richmond & Twickenham Times, which recorded a whopping 235.3pc rise on the back of its switch to the so-called “dual model.”

Only 25 titles classed by the ABC as 100pc paid-for recorded increases in today’s figures, of which 11 were either in Scotland or Northern Ireland.

The full list is as follows:

Tyrone Times 3,466, 17.6pc

Cheadle Post & Times 1,893, 6.7pc

Peeblesshire News 5,322, 6.2pc

Morpeth Herald 3,103, 5.3pc

Limavady Northern Constitution 1,639, 5.3pc

Strabane Chronicle 5,531, 4.2pc

Strathspey & Badenoch Herald 5,032, 3.9pc

Todmorden News 4,198, 3.7pc

Tyrone Herald 6,830, 3.6pc

Northern Times 4,933, 3.5pc

Hebden Bridge Times 3,417, 2pc

South Belfast News 2,133, 2pc

Crawley Observer 8,927, 1.4pc

Denbighshire Free Press 7,243, 1.3pc

Stranraer & Wigtownshire Free Press 7,822 1.2pc

Surrey Mirror 11,941, 1.0pc

Worthing Herald17,768, 0.9pc

Hemsworth & South Elmsall Express 6,514, 0.9pc

Littlehampton Gazette 9,924, 0.9pc

Forres Gazette 3,660, 0.8pc

Stockport Express 14,611, 0.7pc

Brechin Advertiser 2,952, 0.7pc

Uttoxeter Post & Times 3,549, 0.2pc

Brighouse Echo 6,642, 0.2pc

Surrey Herald & Staines News 13,923, 0.1pc