Regional newspaper ABCs: No UK daily now has print circulation of 20,000 or more

Print circulations at UK regional daily newspapers collectively declined 16% between 2023 and 2024, according to the latest data from ABC.

That marks a slight slowing after circulations dropped 17% between the first halves of 2023 and 2024.

But it nonetheless marks a milestone as circulations at the last two regional dailies to circulate 20,000 print copies or more per day, the Irish News and Aberdeen’s Press & Journal, sank below that benchmark and the Evening Standard ceased as a daily title.

The Standard’s average daily circulation in its final month reported to ABC, August, was 273,631. The weekly London Standard is now the non-daily regional paper with the largest circulation, averaging 148,021 copies per issue between October and December.

Total circulations per issue at the 417 non-daily UK local newspapers audited by ABC fell at a slightly slower rate of 14% between 2023 and 2024.

Across the 69 dailies, the total number of single copies sold at newsstands circulated per day also dropped 16%, to 279,000. Paid subscriptions fell 15% to 67,000 per day and free copies dropped more than a third to a total average of 1,364 per day.

Total digital edition sales among the ten regional dailies to report those figures to ABC were stable compared with 2023, rising half a percent to 13,751.

In contrast with print declines, Ipsos iris data from January suggested the UK's largest local news websites grew their audiences compared with a year earlier.

[Read more: Biggest local news sites: Surrey Live grows audience 300% in a year]

The Irish News spent 2024 as the regional daily with both the most digital subscriptions (3,396, down 4%) and highest print circulation (18,586, down 11%). Its print decline was the sixth-shallowest of any regional daily: the slowest decline was recorded at Norwich’s Evening News, where circulation declined 9% year-on-year to 2,629.

Excepting the independent Irish News, the ten slowest print declines were all seen at Newsquest titles. Inversely, nine of the ten fastest print falls came at titles published by Reach, including the Nottingham Post (down 24.9% to 3,218), South Wales Echo (3,547, down 27.4%) and Hull Daily Mail (4,504, down 28.4%).

The largest year-on-year fall, however, was at the Paisley Daily Express (down 36.5% to 1,110), which is published by Media Scotland Ltd.

Among the non-daily titles 13 increased their print circulation by a percent or more - all, again, published by Newsquest. The largest growth was at Your Local Guardian / Epping Forest Guardian / Harlow Guardian, which increased average weekly circulation 35% to 3,640. They were followed by fellow London papers the Islington Gazette (5,300, up 8.5%), the Hackney Gazette (3,974, up 8.3%) and the Newham Recorder (8,052, up 4.2%).

At the other end of the scale 11 non-dailies reported 100% circulation declines, meaning they either stopped publishing print editions or reporting circulation figures to ABC. Eight of these were published by Bullivant Media, with the largest being the Solihull Observer (circulation 8,208 in 2023), the Redditch & Alcester Standard (7,197) and the Bromsgrove & Droitwich Standard (6,290).

After the 100% drops, the largest falls were at Newsquest’s Chester & Ellesmere Port Standard (1,530, down 81% from 8,079), Baylis Community Media’s Maidenhead Advertiser (2,799, down 51%) and Media Scotland’s Irvine Herald and Kilwinning Chronicle (289, down 46.7%).

After The London Standard the most-circulated non-daily newspaper was Chronicle Week (43,890, down 37%), a free weekly newspaper associated with National World’s Express & Star, then another National World title, the Milton Keynes Citizen (29,289, down 5.6%) and Newsquest’s Stevenage Comet (22,227, up 1.6%).