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