AddThis SmartLayers

Regional dailies lose third of readers as cover price rises hit sales

Some regional daily titles lost a third of their readers in the second half of 2013 with cover price rises appearing to have a severe impact on sales.

Today’s ABC figures saw across-the-board circulation decline for UK regional daily titles with four losing 30pc of their sales or more compared to the same period in 2012.

Newsquest titles appeared to be among the worst hit after the company embarked on a strategy of cover price rises in the spring and summer of 2013.

Its Blackburn-based daily the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, which raised its cover price from 45p to 65pc last June, was the worst-performing title in the UK with average circulation down 33.9pc year-on-year.

Other Newsquest titles which saw big sales drops included the Bolton News, down 32.2pc, Worcester News, down 27.7pc, and South Wales Argus, down 32.2pc.

Most of the best-performing daily titles in the UK were from Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands, with the Belfast-based Irish News showing the smallest sales drop at 1.7pc.

In England, the Burton Mail, whose sales are audited annually rather than six-monthly, showed the smallest decrease with 4.8pc closely followed by fellow Local World titles the Grimsby Telegraph, down 6.5pc and Cambridge News, down 6.6pc.

Most of the big-city dailies saw double-digit falls, with the Express & Star down 12.1pc, Nottingham Post 13.4pc, Leicester Mercury 14.4pc, Bristol Post 15.8pc and Sheffield Star 23.3pc.

Trinity Mirror’s daily titles are excluded from the list as their sales are now audited monthly, but several of the group’s major titles have also seen big sales drops over the past 12 months.

A comparison of the most recent figures for January 2014 with the average circulation for the period January – June 2013 showed the South Wales Echo down 13.81pc and the Coventry Telegraph down 11.12pc, although the Manchester Evening News performed better with a 5.23pc drop.

The full figures for UK regional dailies can be read here.    Latest figures for Trinity Mirror daily and Sunday titles can be seen here.

4 comments

You can follow all replies to this entry through the comments feed.
  • February 26, 2014 at 1:57 pm
    Permalink

    Cover price has always been a significant factor in circulation losses. The Daily Telegraph has put up its cover price from £1.20 to £1.40. It is now a luxury to purchase a daily national paper. Therefore I will get out of the habit of reading my news with ink on paper which prefer. It is just the same with the provincial Press, although the historic decline has not just been caused by cover price increases of the BBC regional presence.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • February 26, 2014 at 10:01 pm
    Permalink

    The Brighton Argus boasts of 46k worth of readers in todays paper,full page advert in todays paper quoting October 2013, yet ABC figures in October said16,500, how do they justify this,and this is with 3 readers reading one paper, anyone got any ideas???

    Sadly two full page ads in the paper saying the above due having to fill the space the advertisers have left due them going over to the radio adverts.

    The paper also has three pages of black and white pictures dug out of the library, and they charge 75 pence a day and 85 pence on Saturday!!!!

    No hope for this paper :-(

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • February 28, 2014 at 9:52 am
    Permalink

    Charging for content.by however small an amount.has to be the way forward.
    After all, would newspapers give advertising away for free,and don’t forget that the BBC charges for content..its called the license fee….

    Report this comment

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • February 28, 2014 at 2:26 pm
    Permalink

    Amazing 16,000 figure for Brighton Argus. Seem to recall reading somewhere it was about 116,000 at its peak. Reflects the demise of newspapers over decades, helped by the obsession with digital.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)