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Double-digit drops for all as ABCs reveal pandemic’s impact on dailies

ABClogo-e1424873874120The latest ABC figures have revealed the effect the coronavirus pandemic has had on regional dailies – including the UK’s former top seller experiencing the biggest circulation drop over the first half of this year.

ABC has released its figures for January to June 2021, which show that all daily titles across the country recorded double-digit decreases in circulation over the period.

The effects of the pandemic on print have now become clearer, with year-on-year circulation decreases as great as 37pc at Wolverhampton daily the Express & Star.

The Express & Star was as recently as 2017 the biggest selling UK regional daily, according to ABC.

It should be noted the number of free copies appearing on the paper’s certificate by the auditor decreased by 6,000 between the first halves of 2020 and 2021.

Belfast-based daily the Irish News topped the performance charts, but still experienced an 11.4pc decrease compared to the first half of last year.

Aberdeen-based daily the Press & Journal retained the crown it first took from the E&S in 2018 of having the highest circulation of any daily.

ABC gave all publishers the option of publishing two separate certificates in the first half of 2020 due to the extraordinary circumstances of the crisis – one being a standard certificate for January to June 2020 that includes all issues outside the lockdown period, and another showing circulation for issues affected by lockdown.

The figures below show the comparison between the standard certificates issued for both years.

Title Jan-Jun 2020 Jan-Jun 2021 Y-o-Y pc change
Irish News 31613 28014 -11.4%
The Argus, Brighton 8948 7886 -11.9%
Paisley Daily Express 3802 3320 -12.7%
Dundee Courier 28985 25235 -12.9%
Oxford Mail 7465 6377 -14.6%
Eastern Daily Press 21692 18445 -15.0%
Shropshire Star 16118 13669 -15.2%
East Anglian Daily Times 10938 9276 -15.2%
Dundee Evening Telegraph 9648 8160 -15.4%
Aberdeen Evening Express 16098 13507 -16.1%
The News, Portsmouth 11589 9706 -16.2%
Stoke Sentinel 17179 14351 -16.5%
Bournemouth Echo 9589 7989 -16.7%
South Wales Echo 9951 8274 -16.9%
South Wales Evening Post 12595 10464 -16.9%
Liverpool Echo 26600 22069 -17.0%
Derby Telegraph 12769 10583 -17.1%
Aberdeen Press & Journal 38252 31629 -17.3%
Teesside Gazette 12157 10040 -17.4%
Leicester Mercury 13867 11409 -17.7%
Norwich Evening News 5200 4273 -17.8%
Lancashire Post 6544 5345 -18.3%
Sheffield Star 10594 8624 -18.6%
Newcastle Chronicle 15869 12914 -18.6%
Ipswich Star 4603 3716 -19.3%
Hull Daily Mail 15856 12798 -19.3%
Southern Daily Echo 11206 9026 -19.5%
Nottingham Post 9719 7806 -19.7%
Swindon Advertiser 6859 5474 -20.2%
Coventry Telegraph 8434 6714 -20.4%
York Press 9792 7773 -20.6%
Birmingham Mail 11676 9226 -21.0%
Plymouth Herald 10048 7903 -21.3%
Cambridge News 5375 4202 -21.8%
Yorkshire Evening Post 7845 5926 -24.5%
Manchester Evening News 29613 22107 -25.3%
Bristol Post 9295 6833 -26.5%
Express & Star, Wolverhampton 31477 19683 -37.5%
Yorkshire Post N/A 14440 N/A
News Letter N/A 9505 N/A
The Scotsman N/A 10021 N/A