According to the latest figures released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations(ABC), UK daily newspaper sales dropped by an average of 19% over the second half of 2022, according to their latest figures.
Non-dailies audited by ABC meanwhile saw their January to December circulations decline by an average of 13% compared to the same period in 2021, according to Press Gazette’s analysis.
The overall decline figures do not include all titles and are therefore incomplete. These declines have been calculated on the basis for total circulation for titles reporting data in 2021 and 2022.
Newsquest reclaimed many of its titles from ABC in 2019, but several titles were returned to the system by Newsquest last year. It published data on 23 daily titles in 2022, as opposed to six for 2021. This includes a few titles such as The Ipswich Star and Norwich Eastern Daily Press that came into Newsquest’s fold following its acquisition of Archant in March 2022 which are included in our calculation. Many of the publisher’s titles do not, however, have comparable data for 2021 so have been excluded from our headline totals.
The figures include paid print copies as well as paid print subscriptions. Where applicable, free copies and digital editions are also included. According to the ABC headline figures, digital subscriptions that are reported as small are also included.
Each daily title that submitted comparable data experienced a decrease in circulation year-on-year in the six months ended June 2022, compared to the same period of 2021.
The Irish News (average circulation of 25,398) reported the smallest decline at 8%. It was the only daily title that did not report a double-digit decline in circulations to ABC for 2021 and 2022.
It was followed by National World’s The Scotsman (average circulation of 8,762, down 11%) and Aberdeen’s Press & Journal (average circulation of 26,746, down 12%) published by DC Thomson.
The Manchester Evening News was the worst hit, as it had been the only newspaper to resist the decline trend in 2021. The title’s circulation fell 44% from 20,993 to 11,726, driven by a large fall in the number of free copies distributed from 9,029 on average in the second half of 2021 to 2,315 in 2022. Reach decided to stop free newspaper copies in August 2013.
Four other Reach titles were also particularly hard hit. The Teesside Gazette’s circulation was down 27% from 9,104 to 6,674. Down by 27% each were Plymouth’s The Herald (circulation of 7,234) and Coventry Telegraph (4,488) while Hull Daily Mail was down 28% from 11,621 to 8,393.
The biggest daily by readership was Aberdeen’s Press & Journal (average circulation of 26,746, down 12%). Second-most read was Irish News, while third was DC Thomson’s The Courier’s (20,682 (down 13%).
Print circulations have been severely affected, but some publishers have seen an increase in digital traffic and a few are beginning to experience success with local news online paywalls (scroll down for more information on digital audience figures).
Although the number of print titles reporting data to ABC has decreased in recent years this year, it saw an increase in reports. In this round, 55 dailies shared their numbers with ABC. This was compared to 41 in 2021. 415 nondailies also reported. This is a significant increase on previous years. Newsquest once again drove the bulk of resumed reporting this year.
Among non-dailies, Newsquest’s mostly free Hunts Post (down 62% from 35,345 to 21,791) and its Herts Advertiser (down 65% from 28,941 to 17,500) saw the biggest drops. They were among five papers with circulation declines greater than 50% and 97 that experienced drops below 25%.
At the other end of the table, Newsquest free titles Stevenage Comet (circulation up 46% to 37,233) and North London’s Ham and High Express (up 39% to 6,433) saw the biggest circulation gains.
Other titles with significant gains were also free titles. Love Hackney (published by the London Borough of Hackney) saw circulation up 9% to 100,756, fellow borough-published title Waltham Forest News saw its circulation up 8% to 112,290, and Newsquest’s Newham Recorder was up 4% to 6,025 copies.
Iliffe’s Stratford Herald (up 1% to 5,836) was the only largely paid-for title to see a circulation boost.
The biggest non-dailies by circulation in 2022 were the two London borough-published titles Waltham Forest News and Love Hackney, which knocked last year’s largest title, Chronicle Week (circulation of 93,645), to third position.
Online audience growth
Ipsosiris’ online audience data suggests that, while print readership is declining, some brands are experiencing growth in their online audience. Ipsosiris data shows that 91 of the 169 UK digital brands saw an increase in their audience for January 2022 as well as January 2023.
Among the brands with the biggest growth in audience year-on-year were National World’s Sussex World. This site, which combines 16 former news sites from around the country, saw its audience grow by 874% last year, going from 110,869 users to 1.1million visitors. Newsquest’s Northern Echo was up 100% to 1,817,420, while the York Press was up 95% year-on-year to 952,935.
Reach is the UK’s most prominent commercial publisher. It owns the three UK brands with the greatest digital reach. Manchester Evening News, with a 16.2 million audience in January 2023, is the top of the list. Liverpool Echo (10.7million), and Birmingham Live (10.4million) were next.
Online engagement: 83 of the brands with data in January 2022 or 2023 experienced an increase in minutes spent using their digital content.
The Yorkshire Evening Post saw a 43% increase in engagement year-over-year, with users spending 9.2 million minutes on its content. Sheffield Star saw a 50% increase to 8.2 million minutes and the Belfast Telegraph saw a 71% increase to 7.7 million minutes. Despite audience growth, engagement for many big names fell year-on–year.
Ipsos’ brand group data for regional news brands is based only on the websites, apps and distributed content considered to be news, so brand group totals may differ from those in other reports as some brands may publish websites Ipsos does not categorise under “newspapers”.
Paywalls aren’t common in UK news but a few publishers have made the decision to place them. Newsquest launched digital paywalls and subscriptions in spring 2020 for 70 of its largest sites, including Brighton Argus (Oxford Mail) and Oxford Mail. Last year, the UK’s regional publishing giant reported that it had exceeded 50,000 online subscribers.
DC Thomson, meanwhile, has 25,000 digital subscribers across all its local titles. Mediahuis Ireland and Highland News and Media recently shared with Press Gazette their plans to roll out digital paywalls in the UK for local news coverage.
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