Social media giant Twitter has named the top ten UK regional newspapers with the largest number of followers on the microblogging site.
Regional newspapers now have more than half a million followers overall on Twitter, it has been revealed.
Head of news partnerships Joanna Geary has also posted a list of newspapers in the UK – currently standing at 77 – which are using the social media service.
Heading the most followed list was @LivEchonews (136K) with MENnewsdesk (123K) second and @yorkshirepost (46.2k).
The full list is:
1 @LivEchonews (136K)
2@ MENnewsdesk (123K)
3 @yorkshirepost (46.2k)
4 @Daily_Record (45.7K)
5 @LeedsNews (43.2K)
6 @birminghammail (42.1K)
7 @BelTel (41K)
8 @TheScotsman (40.3K)
9 @EveningChron (36.4K)
10 @ExpressandStar (33.8K)
The Liverpool Echo’s executive editor for digital, Maria Breslin, outlined to HTFP the paper’s strategy behind Twitter.
She said it was seen as another publishing platform and “not a means to an end but an end in itself” adding that “tone and treatment is key.”
She said: “Our voice is authentic and our personality reflects the Liverpool Echo brand, the city and its people.
“Our position as number one regional news brand on Twitter is the result of a lot of hard work over very many years. Over that time we’ve learned a lot and are still learning.”
She said the success was reflected by the Echo being the only “news publisher” to make the top 50 headstream.com’s social brands 2013, being placed ahead of “big-hitters such as the BBC and Sky.”
Maria added: “I think that is because we engage with our Twitter followers.
“It is a conversation. We share our stories but also Tweet-out good pictures and share interesting posts from other people. We chat and answer questions.
“We like to think our followers can find everything they want to know about the day’s news and sports agenda on our feed. But we also like to have fun – and our followers are also happy to join in.
“A shout out for dirty footballers after Liverpool FC player Andre Wisdom got his Porsche stuck in the mud prompted a flurry of witty suggestions from our Twitter family.”
In total there were 585,000 followers in the top ten, although a debate ensued online on whether some entries should be included as regional or not. Joanna pointed out that if the Standard in London (@standardnews) was considered a regional, it would head the list with 97K followers.
There were also questions posed about which of the Scottish newspapers should be viewed as “regional” publications.
Twitter declined to comment further on the figures.
For more go to @joannageary.
Sign up for our free daily email bulletin
Follow HTFP on Twitter
Got a story? Email the Editor at
Make an interesting follow-up to see what resources (staff and software) the Echo and the MEN put into their digital strategies, given that they are so far ahead of the rest.
Report this comment
The company bull is fine, but how much hard cash are all these twits making.
Report this comment
Oh no! Not in the top ten? There will be bo##ockings at the EDP when Pickover gets in.
Report this comment
Yes, but is it making the papers any money?
Report this comment
No Local World titles to be found? #digitaldroppedball
Report this comment
You’ve missed out @Nottingham_Post – 45,000 followers on Twitter.
Report this comment
I am always slightly bemused by the commentators who shout ‘is it making any money’ as soon as anything digital is mentioned.
I know that newspapers are businesses and money is tighter than ever (profits still relatively high in some groups though).
But isn’t it a newsroom’s task to reach new audiences and trial new technology in order to disseminate the news.
The battle between diehard print and online cheerleaders who dismiss ‘dead tree news’ as past it, is frankly laughable.
Aren’t we in the business of telling as many people as possible things they don’t know or need to know?
However they receive the information is up to them, but we should never stop trying new ways of giving them what they want regardless of how much money it makes in short term.
Report this comment
Sorry to be yet another stating the blindingly obvious, but isn’t it still the old-fashioned business of dead trees and ink paying for these Twitter triumphs?
Report this comment
Now HTFP has sunk to doing listicles…
Report this comment
All very laudable to say we are in the business of telling as many people as possible etc etc, but the simple fact is if those we work for don’t make a profit they can’t pay our wages so there won’t be anyone around to do the tweeting or send stuff to the websites or repurpose copy for phones or anything else for that matter. That’s not negative, it’s just realistic
Report this comment
Went to a briefing at TM a couple of years ago and it seemed obvious their future direction was to plough resources into their big city papers because they realised, rightly, that metropolitan residents are the most likely to use things like Twitter and Facebook, tablets and smartphones.
The other side of that coin though was that the company seems to have thrown the baby out with the bathwater and is letting the weeklies wither on the vine, as we saw recently with the Crew Chronicle having its office shit, an excellent, award-nominated paper.
TM’s attitude seemed to be that it owned all the prime real estate, the big city papers, so that’s where it would concentrate. The downside of that of course is how do you make money out of it? There are fake Sam Allardyce accounts on Twitter with more followers, does the person who set that up earn any scratch from it? I suspect not.
The other problem with this kind of following is that it’s not necessarily ‘loyal’, they may follow you and comment on things, but do they buy anything and actually ‘value’ your news content?
If someone buys a paper they obviously value it, if they pay to have online access through a pay wall they do too, so they’re easier to engage with and sell to. Very often, even when you see comments like this at the bottom of a newspaper story online, it’s just riddled with abuse levelled at the paper/journalist.
Sometimes more is less. I’d rather sell my paper to 5,000 people than have 100,000 Twitter followers, to be honest.
Report this comment
If you don’t try how do you know if it will work? (and make money in the future).
Report this comment
Our local non-league football club claims 3,500 Twitter followers.
Last attendance? 59!
It’s the real world in which we need to survive, not the virtual one!
Report this comment
1. How many of these “followers” actually do read the messages and how many simply “signed up” and looked at the site just once or twice?
2. How many of these “followers” actually live or work within the circulation area?
3. How many extra papers sales does the Twitter account drive?
Sad to say, but I bet I know the answers!
Report this comment
Trying to crowbar local newspapers into the world of digital communications is like asking a caveman to knock you up a space shuttle.
Report this comment
It is not just a question of how many followers they have (although I am surprised that the numbers are not higher) it is how you use Twitter as another contact…………….
Report this comment
Is it me or is Twitter for people that just can’t shut the f up!
Report this comment
Twitter is for people who would otherwise be on street corners shouting at buses.
Report this comment
Cumbria Crack (one guy at home putting on all Cumbrian news for free) 43.6K followers.
So many dinosaur comments on here, no wonder local papers are going to the wall.
Report this comment
Most of the comments here are clearly from the print dinosaurs who no longer deserve their place. Try to think about it this way.
Newspapers have always used front pages on news stands, bills, street sellers etc to get people to buy their products. Now, as most publishers are looking to turn their business into a digital one, where does the same form of marketing come from? Yes, that’ll be Twitter, Facebook, blogs, e-newsletters etc.
And, guess what? Its success is now all measurable rather than the previous guesswork by editors and subs who always claimed to know best.
So, for those of you who’ve ever banged on about the design of a front page, the quality of a bill or the placement of street sellers. Just think about your comments again before posting such utter nonsense and at least try to understand and learn some additional skills which many prevent you from being shown up by a bunch of graduates in the future.
Report this comment