More than a third of daily Ipswich Star newspapers distributed between July and December 2012 dropped their 60p cover price to go free, boosting circulation by 8.5% year-on-year to reach 16,783 average distribution.
Trinity Mirror’s 20p Paisley Daily News was the best performing fully paid-for title of 2012, increasing circulation by 1.3% year-on-year and 5% since the first half of 2012 to 7,232.
Birmingham Mail, which Trinity Mirror recently announced would become part-free from April, was the publisher's highest circulating daily title at 40,004 copies per day on average, but this indicated a 9.8% drop since December 2011.
The Midland News Associations’ Express & Star continued to be the biggest selling regional daily with a circulation of 93,799. However, the 42p newspaper, which was 95.5% paid-for, suffered a 10% year-on-year drop in circulation.
Overall, circulation of the UK’s daily regionals dropped by 8.3%, averaging 27,815 for the six months compared to over 30,000 copies a day in the same period last in 2011.
Non-daily regional newspapers also recorded shrunken circulation of an average 1,500 per title across the six months (-6.8%), despite the introduction of 13 new and reclassified titles in the sector.
The Sunday Herald recorded a 25,840 weekly average, and its daily counterpart, The Herald, had a six-month daily distribution average of 43,157.
It is the first time that the Newsquest-owned titles have been included in the regional publications report since its publisher declassified them as nationals six months ago. Both recorded circulation drops of around 2,500 copies on average.
The Dover Express suffered the worst dent in circulation, with a drop of 69.3% year-on-year, reducing its weekly average distribution to just over 6,000 from a December 2011 high of 20,470.
The Uxbridge and West Drayton Gazette, 77% of which is distributed free, more than tripled last year’s circulation figures to reach a weekly average of 32,563 for the second half of this year, giving it the credentials as the fastest growing regional publication of the period.
