Another ailing paid-for weekly has been merged (or should that be submerged?) into a freesheet. The St Albans Observer recorded an 18.4% year-on-year circulation fall last time around, leaving it with sales of just 2,838. So its owner, Newsquest has folded it into its giveaway sister title, the St Albans Review, which has a verified weekly distribution of 48,570.
I was somewhat baffled by the accompanying announcement by the Observer-Review's editor, Martin Buhagiar, who is reported to have said that the Review is delivered to more homes than any other newspaper in the district. That doesn't accord with the ABC figures for July-December last year, which show that the Archant-owned rival, the St Albans and Harpenden edition of the Herts Advertiser, distributed an average of 50,795 copies a week from August onwards.
Well, I suppose things could have changed recently. But it does suggest that we can take the rest of Buhagiar's spin - such as the claim that the "bigger and better" new paper has "already received a positive feedback from our readers" - with a large pinch of salt.
