Slump in sales for local newspapers

All Welsh newspapers suffered a sales decline during 2010 - figures released by a national audit have revealed.

 

The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) provides an independent verification of circulation figures and has announced that from July to December in 2010 only 13 out of 1,100 weekly newspapers managed sales growth across the UK.

 

In Wales all paid for newspapers suffered a decline in sales with the South Wales printed Wales on Sunday and Western Mail taking the biggest hits. The Mail was down 8.8% to 27,495 and WOS down 11.3% to 28,613.

 

Locally, regional dailies were also down. The Daily Post dropped by 2.8% to 31,946 and the Shropshire Star by 7.9% to 58,121.

 

Weekly titles also suffered a drop in sales. The County Times fell by 3.6% to 15,406 weekly copies and the Mid Wales & South Shropshire Journal series by 1.8% to 8,068.

 

The figures though revealed a rise in interest with newspaper websites. The Star was up by 28% while Wales On-Line visits were up by 11.3%. Figures for other local newspaper websites have not been audited.