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ABC Regional Newspapers: Jul-Dec 2010

23 February 2011 by Liz Jaques
Regional Newspapers

Today's ABC release paints a fairly mixed picture for the regional newspaper market, though some newspaper groups performed particularly well during the July to December period.

A few individual titles also had a positive six-months, namely the Shropshire Star, which posted a 54.8% period on period increase in circulation.

This period has seen 49 closures and 29 mergers within the regional newspaper market.

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Regional Newspaper Groups

  • 5 of the top 10 regional newspaper groups recorded period on period increases
  • Echo Newspapers Free Newspaper Group enjoyed the biggest rise, up 40% PoP (60,000 copies)
  • Newsquest Midlands South and Midland News Association Group also performed well, up 10.5% and 7.3% PoP
  • Northcliffe Media Group - Free Titles still leads the groups with a total circulation of almost 1.8 million, despite a 4.8% PoP fall
  • In second place, MEN Weekly Free Newspapers Group suffered the highest percentage drop, down 11.7% PoP to 544,000 total copies.
Top 10 Regional Newspaper Groups By Circulation
Title Jan 10 - Jun 10 Jul 10 - Dec 10 Actual Change PoP % Change
Northcliffe Media Group - Free Titles 1,873,814 1,783,092 -90,722 -4.8
MEN Weekly Free Newspapers Group 615,776 543,784 -71,992 -11.7
Northcliffe Media South East Group 520,373 502,596 -17,777 -3.4
Midland News Association Group 468,234 502,542 34,308 7.3
Chronicle Newspapers Group 404,850 404,431 -419 -0.1
Newsquest Midlands South 264,473 292,178 27,705 10.5
KM Extra Group (Kent) 271,478 260,920 -10,558 -3.9
North East Press Ltd 219,937 222,445 2,508 1.1
Echo Newspapers Free Newspaper Group 148,844 208,528 59,684 40.1
Nottingham & Long Eaton Recorder Group 193,202 193,264 62 0.0
Total 4,980,981 4,913,780 -67,201 -1.3
Jul-Dec10-Titles

Regional Newspaper Titles

  • Shropshire Star provided the best results of the top ten titles, up 54.8% PoP - an increase of 35,000 copies
  • Milton Keynes Citizen and MK News also put in a good performance, up 9.1% and 4.8% respectively
  • Leading the titles, the Nottingham & Long Eaton Topper also enjoyed a small increase, up 0.2% to 213,000 copies
  • 6 of the top 10 regional titles posted PoP percentage declines
  • Manchester Evening News (Mon-Sat) suffered the highest fall, down by 3.5% - a real term loss of 3,400 copies
  • However, most of the losses were fairly small compared to the last release (Jan-Jun 2010)
Top 10 Regional Newspapers By Circulation
Title Jan 10 - Jun 10 Jul 10 - Dec 10 Actual Change PoP % Change
Nottingham & Long Eaton Topper 212,266 212,793 527 0.2
Nottingham Recorder 145,615 145,080 -535 -0.4
Lambeth Life 115,995 114,927 -1,068 -0.9
Wirral Globe 113,324 113,157 -167 -0.1
Milton Keynes Citizen 97,714 106,646 8,932 9.1
MK News 94,497 99,071 4,574 4.8
Shropshire Star 63,384 98,111 34,727 54.8
Manchester Evening News (Mon-Sat) 96,719 93,348 -3,371 -3.5
Liverpool Echo (Mon-Sat) 89,140 87,198 -1,942 -2.2
Derby Express 89,279 86,992 -2,287 -2.6
Total 1,117,933 1,157,323 39,390 3.5
Jul-Dec10-Groups

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