No doubt about it, the latest set of regional newspaper circulation figures make for terrible reading. Every sector - mornings, evenings, weekly paid-fors and frees - suffered from a steep decline in the second six months of last year compared to the same period the year before.
There are some stand-out examples of the downward trend, such as the double-digit divers: the Manchester Evening News (-26.8%), Birmingham Mail (-13.1%), Doncaster Star (-13.4%) and Peterborough Evening Telegraph (-10.6%). With the two exceptions highlighted by Stephen Brook, the daily titles have all lost substantial sales. The weeklies have performed very badly too, and this is very noticeable in the London suburbs where newspaper circulations have been falling gradually over the years.
But the regional newspaper industry is no longer as concerned about these figures as it once was. It is convinced that the audience for Britain's 1,300 provincial papers, far from disappearing, is increasing because of its multi-media innovations. Apart from newspaper websites, regional titles also publish some 600 magazines and there are 28 radio stations and two TV stations attached to newspaper brands.
According to the Newspaper Society, the industry is well on its way to proving the point because it has now developed - in company with JICREG and ABC Electronic - a "multi-media audience currency". The structure has been built and is now being tested.
The NS has commissioned Telmar to develop a methodology for integrating internet audience data with print readership data. This will be incorporated into the JICREG readership database to provide combined audience analysis. And there are high hopes that hard figures will be available before the end of this year.
Though the newsprint figures are undeniably poor, publishers are confident that the array of new delivery platforms - paid and free, internet and SMS - are extending market penetration. I am delighted. It was in March last year that I made a speech urging the regionals to "preach the reach". Now they're on the verge of doing so and I look forward to seeing the (hopefully positive) results.
