Sales of regional newspapers, meaning their newsprint versions, declined further in the final six months of 2014, according to the latest figures realised by ABC.
That, in itself, is hardly surprising. But the overall fall among the daily titles does appear to be accelerating. Again, that’s to be expected as more and more people are choosing to read their news online.
There were very few titles that didn’t suffer double-digit drops in circulation over the course of the year.
Among the most notable fallers was the Birmingham Mail, down 20.5% year-on-year to a low of 30,957 copies. I imagine its publisher, Trinity Mirror, must be thinking seriously about whether to continue with the expense of print publication.
The company can take some comfort from its rise in online browsers, which went up by a very creditable 111%.
Trinity Mirror will be disappointed also by declines in the sales of the Liverpool Echo, down 12.6%, the Newcastle Journal (-9.2%), the Teesside Gazette (-11.3%), the Newcastle Chronicle (-11.4%) and the Coventry Telegraph (-15%), but perhaps heartened a little by the Manchester Evening News recording only a 4.5% decrease.
Newsquest also saw big falls for most of its daily titles. The Bradford Telegraph & Argus lost 12.8% of its sale, and the South Wales Argus was off by 9.2%.
The Bournemouth Echo fell by 11.1% while further along the coast the Brighton Argus dropped by 12.2%. It sold just 13,309 copies in a city of 250,000 people. Its new editor, Mike Gilson, faces a big challenge. But the Lancashire Telegraph did very well indeed, with only a 3.5% fall.
Local World will not have much to celebrate on the print front, though its online statistics suggest that it is enjoying a growing audience for its websites.
In print, the Cambridge News was down 15% while the Leicester Mercury lost 10.5% of its sale, the Nottingham Post was down 11.2% and the Stoke Sentinel suffered a 10.3% loss.
Johnston Press’s daily titles showed big falls too. The Sunderland Echo was down by a worrying 16.8% (to 18,876 copies) and the Wigan Evening Post lost 15% of its sale. JP’s other big fallers were the Blackpool Gazette (-13.3%), the Yorkshire Evening (-15.7%), the Sheffield Star (-12.7%), the Edinburgh Evening News (-12.1%), and the Portsmouth News (-10.9%).
Nor is life much better for smaller publishers. The Express & Star was down by 13.2%. The Oldham Chronicle lost 13.1% of its sale compared to the same six months the year before. And the North West Evening Mail was off by 8%.
Add to this substantial falls for weekly titles and the print picture looks bleak. By contrast, every publisher is boasting of improved numbers of people reading titles online.
The problem, as ever, is attracting enough digital advertising to fund journalism.