Yesterday’s ABC figures for the regional press were quite possibly the worst set of results since the Second World War.
Overall sales of regional dailies dropped eight per cent overall from a total of 3,126,756 in the six months to June 2008 to 2,868,544 in the first half of this year.
That’s a drop of eight per cent overall.
Many of the big city titles lost sales at a rate of 10 per cent or more.
The average sales drop among the UK’s regional dailies was five per cent in the second half of last year. So the rate of decline appears to have accelerated markedly since then as Britain’s regional newspapers evidently felt the effects of the recession.
Here are the sales figures for the UK’s 88 regional dailies listed alphabetically along with their percentage circulation drops:
- Aberdeen – Evening Express 51,800 -2.5%
- Aberdeen – Press & Journal (Series) 77,006 -3.9%
- Barrow – North West Evening Mail 16,747 -8.9%
- Belfast Telegraph 68,024 -10.5%
- Birmingham Mail 56,495 -14.6%
- Birmingham Post 12,076 -5.6%
- Bournemouth – The Daily Echo 29,687 -7.5%
- Bradford – Telegraph & Argus 31,963 -10.2%
- Bristol – Western Daily Press (Series) 36,085 -10.8%
- Bristol Evening Post 43,997 -10.9%
- Burton Mail 13,221 -8.9%
- Cambridge Evening News 24,970 -5.6%
- Cardiff – South Wales Echo – Evening 39,361 -11.8%
- Carlisle – News and Star East 14,772 -8.8%
- Carlisle – News and Star West 5,852 -8.9%
- Colchester – Evening Gazette 19,656 -7.3%
- Coventry Telegraph & The Pink 41,152 -11.1%
- Daily Post (Wales) 33,938 -5.3%
- Darlington – The Northern Echo 46,729 -7.3%
- Derby Evening Telegraph 37,896 -9.3%
- Doncaster Star 3,263 -12.1%
- Dundee Courier & Advertiser (Series) 67,996 -6.2%
- Dundee Evening Telegraph 23,180 -5.5%
- Edinburgh – Evening News 46,222 -6.1%
- Exeter – Express & Echo 19,132 -7.2%
- Express & Star (West Midlands) (Series) 128,836 -6.7%
- Express & Star (West Midlands) Sporting Star 7,301 -10.9%
- Glasgow – Evening Times 63,803 -12.0%
- Gloucestershire Echo 18,097 -12.2%
- Greenock Telegraph 15,965 -6.5%
- Grimsby Telegraph 31,194 -7.4%
- Halifax – Evening Courier 18,798 -4.5%
- Hartlepool Mail 16,362 -7.9%
- Huddersfield Daily Examiner 22,601 -9.1%
- Hull Daily Mail 50,826 -9.7%
- Ipswich – East Anglian Daily Times 31,485 -7.5%
- Ipswich – Evening Star 16,882 -12.6%
- Irish News – Morning 46,800 -2.3%
- Lancashire Evening Post 27,429 -7.7%
- Lancashire Telegraph – Blackburn (Series) 27,481 -7.6%
- Leeds – Yorkshire Evening Post 46,013 -13.6%
- Leeds – Yorkshire Post 44,690 -6.4%
- Leicester Mercury 62,161 -10.0%
- Lincolnshire Echo 19,720 -8.6%
- Liverpool Daily Post 11,648 -18.4%
- Liverpool Echo 92,093 -10.1%
- Newcastle-Upon-Tyne Evening Chronicle 63,872 -11.1%
- Newcastle-Upon-Tyne Journal 31,817 -7.4%
- Northampton Chronicle & Echo 18,955 -4.4%
- Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph – Kettering 21,609 -2.8%
- Norwich – Eastern Daily Press 60,579 -4.6%
- Norwich – Eastern Evening News 19,903 -10.5%
- Nottingham Evening Post 47,958 -13.6%
- Oldham Evening Chronicle 18,062 -10.4%
- Oxford Mail 22,830 -6.8%
- Paisley Daily Express 8,764 -5.7%
- Peterborough Evening Telegraph 16,523 -8.5%
- Plymouth – The Herald 33,622 -7.2%
- Plymouth – Western Morning News 36,869 -6.8%
- Portsmouth – News & Sports Mail (Series) 48,191 -9.3%
- Reading Evening Post 12,446 -8.1%
- Scarborough Evening News 12,062 -9.9%
- Scunthorpe Telegraph 18,304 -9.1%
- Sheffield Star & Green ‘Un 45,233 -10.0%
- Shropshire Star (Series) 66,442 -5.9%
- South Shields – Shields Gazette 17,110 -5.7%
- South Wales Argus – Evening 26,667 -5.6%
- South Wales Evening Post (Series) 46,069 -10.1%
- Southampton – Southern Daily Echo 36,092 -7.4%
- Southend – Basildon – Castle Point – Echo 33,854 -2.4%
- Sunderland Echo & Football Echo 38,199 -7.2%
- Swindon Advertiser 20,660 -5.4%
- Teesside – Evening Gazette 45,641 -9.5%
- The Argus Sussex 29,006 -8.5%
- The Bolton News 26,064 -9.6%
- The Citizen 22,593 -12.0%
- The Gazette – Blackpool 26,019 -8.2%
- The Sentinel 56,609 -6.9%
- Torquay – Herald Express (Series) 23,193 -3.3%
- Ulster – News Letter 25,250 -3.6%
- Wales – The Western Mail – Morning (Series) 32,926 -11.4%
- Weymouth – Dorset Evening Echo 18,505 -1.1%
- Wigan Evening Post 7,737 -9.5%
- Worcester News 15,975 -9.1%
- Wrexham – Evening Leader 19,437 -8.1%
- York – The Press 30,722 -6.5%
- Yorkshire Sport (Sat) 4,770 -15.5%
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