Torrential downpours and widespread flooding helped swell circulation figures for one weekly paper, with around 1,000 extra copies sold.

The Cornishman celebrated its biggest sales boost of the year when a special poster front page, featuring a man carrying a woman across a river-like road in a fireman’s lift, hit the streets.

Two pages of flooding stories and pictures inside followed, leading to the sales lift which was also up 1.8pc on the same week from the previous year.

Editor Jaqui Walls said: “This was a real team effort, with reporters and digital staff across Cornwall contributing to our online flood coverage over the weekend, followed up by some great stories for the newspaper the following Thursday.

The special poster front for The Cornishman, which helped boost sales by around 1,000 copies compared to the week before

“It was a great example of how the right story treatment in print and online can produce excellent results across the board.”

The Cornishman has an average weekly circulation of 14,736, according to the latest figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC).

The flooding which hit Cornwall over the weekend of November 25 and 26 also led to a boost in online visitor numbers to thisiscornwall.co.uk.

The weekend statistics showed 43,500 unique visitors to the site – a 74pc week on week increase – and 250,000 page views, which was an increase of 175pc on the previous weekend.