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Circulation falls across the board at Trinity Mirror regionals

ABClogo-e1424873874120Sales fell across all of Trinity Mirror regional dailies during June compared the previous month according to the latest ABC figures.

The figures for combined print and digital edition show Sunday titles faring particularly badly during June, with the Liverpool Sunday Echo down 11pc, Wales on Sunday down 7.9pc and  the Sunday Mercury down 5pc.

The statistics also showed a year-on-year decline across the board for the company’s print editions, with the Birmingham Mail posting the biggest year-on-year decline, down 28.2pc.

The full figures can be seen in the tables below.

1. Print and Digital sales for April with month-on-month change:

June ABC 1

2. Print only with year-on-year change:

June ABC 2

16 comments

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  • July 10, 2015 at 4:08 pm
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    Scary stuff, and I’m not being glib there. I love newspapers, it’s heartbreaking seeing them so under attack.

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  • July 11, 2015 at 1:06 pm
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    It is sad, but inevitable. Reading, and sourcing information, have changed out of all recognition and we can’t really expect a 17th century idea to keep going no matter what. I don’t think they’ll disappear altogether, and I don’t think journalism is going to die. I do, however, think that we are still very much in the midst of this technological and social revolution, and it’s hard to see the way ahead. The only thing to do is keep trying, keep innovating and see what happens.

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  • July 12, 2015 at 12:09 pm
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    One of the most painful things of watching this horror unfold from the inside is the fact that there doesn’t seem to be anyone (editors, managers or directors) telling us how we’re going to arrest this unbelievably steep decline.
    The Birmingham Mail and the Coventry Telegraph are supposed to be the thoroughbreds of our shrinking stable, but just look at those figures. Also, let’s not kid ourselves about digital either – we all know that just isn’t working as well as were told it would.
    The word ‘disgraceful’ gets used an awful lot in our newsroom, but the expression hasn’t worn thin yet.

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  • July 12, 2015 at 7:53 pm
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    Perhaps a change in the usual policy of cost-cutting might produce a better result.
    Recent cost cutting at my parents local JP paper means there is so little local news in it that they are considering cancelling after buying the weekly for 40-odd years.
    They are the kind of well-to-d0–readers that advertisers love.

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  • July 13, 2015 at 9:26 am
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    Lots more cross-title syndication of content on TM sites recently, plus if you monitor an area it seems every employee now has their twitter accounts used to pump out content.

    This is quite odd if you keep a search running on tweetdeck as often several reporters will tweet the same thing – what TM do not seem to realise is generic place name searches is what ‘real’ people do…. and they can see what is going on.

    Oh, and whats with all the quizzes? Are all members of staff really that happy they got 8/10 on ‘Whats your fave X moment?’ ?

    Someone needs to explain the difference between generic and targeted traffic.

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  • July 13, 2015 at 10:27 am
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    Shoehorn online content into print, and this is what you get.

    TM needs to learn that they’re different things for different people.

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  • July 13, 2015 at 10:49 am
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    Not surprised. They no longer publish papers readers find of interest.
    Many of the TM titles are so far removed from any contact with their readership that, as the Manchester Evening News, once boasted they were “A Friend Dropping In” has been lost. How can really newsy newspapers be produced, dailies and weeklies, with editorial staff writing copy at a base miles from the main circulation areas. The decline has been blamed on the Internet and websites. But that is not the whole picture.
    Yes, newspapers are under attack from free access to web sites but let us face it the publishers response has been pathetic. Instead of meeting the challenge they have jumped on the Internet bandwagon simply in the hope that eventually they can abandon the printed paper, cut staffs, journalists and photographers to the bare bone and make vast profits for their shareholders.

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  • July 13, 2015 at 11:47 am
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    Look at the differences in the numbers between the first table and the second. Hardly any difference (= hardly any digital sales).

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  • July 13, 2015 at 12:50 pm
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    I read one of those dailies recently, won’t say which, but I’d dropped the Mrs off to get her hair done so thought I’d get one and read it in the coffee shop so I didn’t look like an oddball.

    I ‘read’ it for about ten minutes then threw it away, cost me about a quid. It just felt like garbage, I can’t even tell you why, I think a lot of it is subliminal, the headlines, the pictures etc not being up to scratch, and just no real – you know – entertainment value.

    I feel like a hypocrite saying I’m sad to see the loss of papers because I don’t buy them myself, and when I do I don’t enjoy them.

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  • July 13, 2015 at 2:08 pm
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    No wonder TM need to buy the Express, their regional portfolio is clearly in near freefall. It cannot be long before the Midlands titles cease generating cash , then what ?

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  • July 13, 2015 at 2:39 pm
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    Staggering to see the Birmingham Mail’s present, tiny readership. I remember going for an interview there once when it was selling over 300,000 and was a recognised stepping stone to the nationals.

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  • July 13, 2015 at 5:41 pm
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    I don’t expect the Birmingham Post will be around much longer. perhaps only weeks at this rate. They will incorporate into a revamped Mail and hike up the price and that will be another nail in the coffin. Sad, not just for the hard-working journalists but also for those readers who still want a decent read. They are certainly not getting at the moment. Catastrophic for local democracy as the Birmingham Mail once held the public bodies to account. The papers’ demise is a huge loss.

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  • July 13, 2015 at 6:07 pm
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    Punter — the one thing they do keep us very well informed of is that we’re not generating cash!

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  • July 14, 2015 at 12:00 am
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    Carrying on from the above as am bored waiting for midnight to see what the days total stats were like.

    Try some of these google searches on your fave TM title, or other newspaper titles as most are at it…..

    site:liverpoolecho.co.uk “what time” OR “when is”
    site:birminghammail.co.uk “what time” OR “when is”
    site:dailypost.co.uk “what time” OR “when is”
    site:chroniclelive.co.uk “what time” OR “when is”
    site:walesonline.co.uk “what time” OR “when is”
    site:coventrytelegraph.net “what time” OR “when is”

    Some recent topical examples on this traffic play which appears to be run from the Liverpool hub.

    http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/whats-on/film-news/wimbledon-2015-andy-murray-back-9554660
    what time is andy murray back on

    http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/whats-on/film-news/wimbledon-2015-andy-murray-back-9554660
    what time is andy murray back on

    http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/whats-on/film-news/wimbledon-2015-andy-murray-back-9554660
    exact same

    http://www.dailypost.co.uk/whats-on/film-news/wimbledon-2015-andy-murray-back-9554660
    exact same article

    http://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/film-news/wimbledon-2015-andy-murray-back-9554660
    exact same

    similar stuff, again can be found all over the place:
    http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/other-sport/tennis/andy-murrays-semi-final-against-roger-9623316
    http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/other-sport/tennis/andy-murray-playing-wimbledon-wednesday-9609661

    The above works and grows traffic as people do search these terms. What is this ‘traffic growth’, and what does it mean to the metrics used to see if a website or digital property is a success?

    There are other terms aside from what time / when is etc but these are just examples.

    Something to ponder when the pageviews and uniques are up!

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  • July 14, 2015 at 10:22 am
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    RT, you’re preaching to the choire my friend. As I’ve said a lot on here, the debate isn’t about print vs digital, it’s about journalism vs polly filler.

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