A free weekly newspaper in the Midlands is outperforming its rivals as it celebrates its first anniversary this week.

ABC figures have revealed that the Kidderminster Express & Star distributes more copies than any other weekly title in the Worcestershire town by delivering 21,875 copies to homes.

The weekly edition of the best-selling Express & Star replaced the Kidderminster Chronicle in October last year and has built up a loyal following with 68pc of people in the area having read a copy in a previous week.

The Kidderminster Express & Star is outpeforming its rivals after launching in October last year

Phil Inman, Midlands News Association managing director, said the research showed the Kidderminster Express & Star had quickly become “a very strong presence in the town”.

“Readers have become engaged with the newspaper in a very short time, and were particularly complimentary about our coverage of regional news, sport, business as well as our TV listings,” he said.

“The Kidderminster edition draws upon the strength of the Express & Star brand which has been trusted by people in our region for more than a century.

“We will use the research findings to further enhance the paper and, going forward, continue to grow this audience and their satisfaction with our product.”

The study, which was carried out to Joint Industry Committee for Regional Media Research (JICREG) standards revealed that 76pc of the town’s population had read it at some point since its launch with readers taking an average of 23 minutes and 48 seconds to read the paper.