ABC Regional Newspapers: Jan-Jun 2009

New on MediaTel Press this afternoon: Downloadable report with free and paid percentages for each regional title. Go to the data release charts tab in the Press database and find ‘Regional Newspapers – Free or Paid’. Further historic reports for past releases will appear on this page shortly.

The latest regional ABC figures, for January to June 2009, reveal the debut regional circulation figure for the London Evening Standard.

For the first six months of the year the paper had a total circulation of 236,000 copies.

It was a poor period for the top ten regional newspaper groups, as they all recorded declines.

Regional Newspaper Groups

All of the top ten regional newspaper groups recorded declines during the period, with several suffering significant losses of more than 20%.

Northcliffe Media South East Group was down by almost 40% period on period, a loss of more than 300,000 copies, which takes it down to below 500,000 in total.

Northcliffe Media Group – Free Titles also suffered a significant loss during the period, down by over 500,000 copies (19.2%), though it still has the highest circulation by far with more than 2.1 million copies in total.

In March, the regional publishing arm of the Daily Mail & General Trust announced plans to make 95 workers redundant and to close or merge a number of its weekly papers across Essex, Kent and Surrey in a bid to centralise regional production.

At the time, the publisher said it had been forced to restructure to “reduce costs in the current challenging trading environment”.

Archant London Group was another high faller, down by 28.2% period on period, to just short of 320,000 copies.

Earlier this month, the publisher announced a 61.6% drop in operating profits for the first six months of the year.

The company’s newspaper and printing division saw revenues fall 29.5% to £49.1 million.

LSN Full Group also lost more than 20% of its circulation, taking it down to 333,000 in total.

MEN Weekly Free Newspapers Group witnessed the smallest percentage decline out of the top ten – down 2.9% to a respectable 675,500 copies, which is the highest out of the group with the exception of Northcliffe’s free titles.

However, the Manchester Evening News owner has not been immune to the downturn and was forced to cut 150 jobs, including 78 editorial staff, and close eight offices around the Manchester area in March this year.

Regional Newspaper Titles

The London Evening Standard revealed its debut regional ABC figure today, showing a total circulation figure of 236,000 copies for the first six months of the year.

The Nottingham & Long Eaton Topper had a circulation of almost 213,000 copies following a period on period rise of around 1%.

It was one of only two of the top ten titles to record an increase in its circulation. The Derby Express was up 1.1% period on period to more than 113,000 copies.

The Nottingham Recorder performed pretty well, however, remaining relatively static at 152,000 copies.

There were large declines for the Wirral Globe and the Edinburgh Herald & Post, down 11.9% and 11.1% respectively.

The Wirral Globe‘s circulation now stands at around 118,000 copies, while the Edinburgh Herald & Post‘s total is 115,000 copies.

The Coventry Times and Milton Keynes Citizen were both down by 6.5% period on period, to around 111,000 and 98,000 copies respectively.

Down 2.6% period on period, the Solihull News now has a circulation of just under 93,000, while the Liverpool Echo (Mon-Sat) has a circulation of 92,000 following a 5.6% fall.