PRINT SALES CONTINUE TO DROP

According to the latest ABC figures, only one regional daily newspaper in England is now selling more than 10,000 copies a day on average – and that’s the Eastern Daily Press. Which means that for the first time ever, the Wolverhampton-based Express & Star – the paper with the highest circulation in the West Midlands – has slumped to 9,443 from 11,864.

A year ago, the Express & Star, Liverpool Echo and Yorkshire Post were all selling in excess of 10,000 but both the Echo and E&S have dropped 20 per cent, while the Post has seen its circulation fall by 11 per cent.

Meanwhile, the Shropshire Star, for the period from July-December 2024, sold 7,551 copies (down from 8,713); Stoke-on-Trent’s The Sentinel sold 6,5133 (down from 7,907), while the Birmingham Mail plummeted 21 per cent from 5,074 to 3,965. The Coventry Telegraph sells, on average, just 2,312 a day – down 28 per cent from 3,213.

The Sunday Mercury’s circulation is 2,838 compared to 3,622 for the same period in 2023 – a decrease of 21 per cent, while The Birmingham Post now sells just 679 copies, having slumped by almost 20 per cent from the Jan-Dec 2023 figure of 844.

In the East Midlands, the situation is just as bad, with the Leicester Mercury dropping 21 per cent to 4,997; the Derby Telegraph dropping 22 per cent to4,536 and the Nottingham Post, now selling 2,948 having experienced a drop of 26 per cent.

Topping the charts for free circulation weekly titles in the West Midlands region are the Shrewsbury Chronicle (15,594, down 37 per cent from 25,114), Telford Journal (15,029, down 26 per cent from 20,509) and the Stourbridge News (8,662, down 7 per cent from 9,386.