UK regional newspapers
There are about 1500 regional newspapers in the UK. Links
are given to the sites of some parent companies, from which there
are links to individual papers. This page concentrates on paid
titles. (See Newspaper
Society for a list of top publishers.) Subjects covered
are:
| Top
20 regional dailies |
Owner |
Circulation
(Jul-Dec 04)
|
| 1 |
Evening Standard (London) |
Associated
Newspapers Ltd (Daily Mail and Gen. Trust) |
361,340
|
| 2 |
Express and Star
(West Midlands) |
West
Midlands Express & Star Group |
157,783
|
| 3 |
Manchester Evening News |
Manchester
Evening News Ltd (Guardian Media Group) |
141,737
|
| 4 |
Liverpool Echo |
Liverpool
Daily Post and Echo (Trinity) |
129,681
|
| 5 |
Birmingham
Evening Mail |
Birmingham
Post & Mail Ltd (Trinity) |
96,143
|
| 6 |
Belfast Telegraph |
Belfast
Telegraph Newspapers |
94,540
|
| 7 |
Evening Times (Glasgow) |
Newsquest
(Herald and Times) |
91,613
|
| 8 |
Evening Chronicle
(Newcastle-upon-Tyne) |
Newcastle
Chronicle & Journal Ltd |
89,074
|
| 9 |
Aberdeen
Press & Journal |
Aberdeen
Journals Ltd (Northcliffe Newspapers) |
87,858
|
| 10 |
Leicester Mercury |
Leicester
Mercury Group Ltd |
84,419
|
| 11 |
Dundee
Courier & Advertiser |
DC
Thomson & Co Ltd |
81,002
|
| 12 |
Shropshire
Star |
Shropshire
Newspapers |
79,460
|
| 13 |
The
Herald (Glasgow) |
Newsquest
(Herald and Times) |
78,746
|
| 14 |
The
Sentinel (Stoke-on-Trent) |
Staffordshire
Sentinel Newspapers Ltd |
73,210
|
| 15 |
Nottingham
Evening Post |
Nottingham
Post Group Ltd |
72,269
|
| 16 |
Eastern
Daily Press (Norwich) |
|
71,095
|
| 17 |
Yorkshire Evening Post (Leeds) |
Yorkshire
Post Newspapers Ltd |
68,635
|
| 18 |
Evening
News (Edinburgh) |
Scotsman
Publications |
63,771
|
| 19 |
Sheffield
Star |
|
62,623
|
| 20 |
News
& Sports Mail (Portsmouth) |
|
60,663
|
| Source:
The Newspaper Society/ABC |
|
Regional newspaper groups: historyBack to top
|
| There are 21 provincial newspapers still
published which were founded before 1776. Berrow's Worcester
Journal (around 1690) and the Lincoln, Rutland and Stamford
Mercury (around 1695) are the oldest. These pre-date the
surviving national papers, the Times (1785) and the Observer(1791).
In absolute terms the oldest paper is the London Gazette
(1665). Belfast's News Letter dates from 1737 and the
specialist daily for the shipping industry, Lloyd's List,
from 1734. The British Library has a concise history of the
British newspaper since 1620and other
resources. |
|
Regional newspaper groups: the 1990s Back to top
The 1990s saw substantial re-structuring of the industry. Reed
and Pearson sold off their interests in regional papers which
were seen as unfashionable and being under threat from Internet-based
advertising. However, the sector was seen to turn around with
three of the biggest, Trinity, Northcliffe and Newsquest, working
together to set up their own websites under the This is ...
brand; Trinity took over national Mirror group in September
1999; further rationalisation (eg Johnston taking over Portsmouth
and Sunderland in May 1999; Gannett buying Newsquest; Newsquest
buying Newscom; fight over RIM); and aggressive co-operative
marketing through advertising campaigns, online marketing and
CD-Roms for campaign planning from Northcliffe. Investors in
the Newsquest buy-out were offered a 66% return on their investment
within four years with the June 1999 approach by USA Today
group Gannett, the largest in the US by circulation.
|
|
Regional groups: online strategy Back to top
In the mid-1990s, three of the biggest groups, Trinity, Northcliffe
and Newsquest, developed a co-operative strategy after initially
setting up their own sites for individual papers. For example,
the Newsquest title the Watford Observer had its own
site, but this was later subsumed into This is Hertfordshire,
although it has later separated off again. Groups of local papers
set up under the This is ... brand. An overall gateway This
is Britain was established (since closed; the link goes to the
Daily Mail). This
is Local London covers the greater London area as a set
of 25 towns, a 'family of digital communities', from Bromley
to Watford. Backing these up was a set of advertising gateways
under the AdHunter banner launched in 1997:
- Find It, a database of 1.8 million businesses
- Job Hunter
- Auction Hunter
- Auto Hunter
- Property Hunter
In October 1999, the main classified sites were relaunched under
the 'Fish4' brand. This was led by six regional newspaper groups:
Newsquest, Northcliffe, Trinity Mirror, Guardian Media Group
Regional Newspapers, Regional Independent Media, and Bristol
United Press. Nine other groups were involved: Newscom, Jersey
Evening Post, Guernsey Evening Press, Tindle, Cumbrian, Kent
Messenger, Johnston Press, Tweeddale Press and Associated Newspapers
(London Evening Standard). The sites aggregated classified advertising
from about 800 daily and weekly regional newspapers:
- fish4cars
database of used cars
- fish4homes
started with 30,000 properties in seven regions
- fish4it
search engine of 1.4 million businesses (since closed)
- fish4jobs
50,000 jobs drawn from the member newspapers
This is Britain (which had been a .com address) was relaunched
as .co.uk to act as a gateway linking to the 60-plus 'This
is …' sites, though this has since closed.
Overall advertising sales were managed by Real Media.
To improve regionals' image, a spring 2000 advertising campaign
in the marketing press promoted the results of a report on
the future of regional papers, called Now, and a website,
Perspectives (since closed). This also contained links to
a digital artwork delivery service, AdFast.
|
Profiles of top 10 regional groups Back to top
|
| Archant
(formerly Eastern Counties Newspaper Group) |
Based in Norwich. Has 80 titles, including the
Eastern Daily Press. Bought Home Counties group in 1998.
In March 2002 Eastern Counties Newspaper Group changed its name
to Archant to reflect its broadening geographic scope and increasing
magazine portfolio |
| Associated
Newspapers Ltd |
Controls London's Evening Standard and daily
freesheet Metro and Ireland on Sunday. Subsidiary
of Daily Mail and General Trust plc |
| D
C Thomson |
Based in Dundee. Founded in 1905 and famed for
papers such as the Sunday Post, Scots magazine,
and comics such as the Beano
(founded in 1938) |
| Guardian
Media Group plc |
Regional Newspaper Division owns Manchester
Evening News, Manchester Metro News, City Life
and 40 other paid-for and free titles in Berkshire, Cheshire,
Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Surrey. Plus 25 local websites.
Owns quarter share of Fish4 |
| Johnston
Press |
Became fourth biggest group in May 1999 with purchase
of Portsmouth and Sunderland. Has 200+ titles all over the UK.
Based in Edinburgh |
| Midland
News Association Ltd |
Comprises Express
& Star Ltd in Wolverhampton with 11 papers, led by the
daily West Midlands - Express & Star and Shropshire
Newspapers Ltd in Telford with 7 papers, including the daily
Shropshire Star |
| Mirror Group Regional Newspapers (now Trinity) |
Taken over by Trinity. MGRN was a top five company
with 44 papers, including Midland Independent Newspapers (Birmingham
Post and Mail) and Northern Ireland's number two
title, the News Letter |
| Newsquest
corporate site and media
sales |
Top-five group formed in September 1995 through
management buy-outs of papers from Reed and Pearson (Westminster
Press) funded by US investors Cinven and KRR. Bought up by US
group Gannett
Co, Inc (owner of the only national US daily, USA Today)
in June 1999 with offer
of £904m. Bought Newscom in 2000 and Glasgow's Herald
and Evening Times in 2002 from SMG.
Newsquest site profiles the group's 20+ titles (includes
Northern Echo, where Harold Evans made his name,
Oxford Mail and Brighton Evening Argus). Runs regional
web sites under the This is... brand. The first covered Lancashire
in June 1995:
http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/
http://www.thisishertfordshire.co.uk/
Virginia-based Gannett publishes 74 daily papers; owns 21
TV stations; and has cable interests in three states. It is
one of the top newspaper groups in the world by circulation
(with Murdoch's News Corporation)
|
| Northcliffe
Newspapers Group |
One of the top five with 110 titles (17 dailies).
Controlled by Daily Mail and General Trust plc. Runs 13 community
sites under the This is ... banner with others being developed
in partnership with Newsquest and Trinity. Accessed through
This is Britain
portal. |
| Portsmouth and Sunderland Newspapers (now Johnston) |
Bought by Johnston Press in May 1999 for £245m.
Publishes 23 titles. Four are dailies: Portsmouth News, Sunderland
Echo, Hartlepool Mail and South Shields Gazette.
Founded in mid-1800s. Also owns 200 grocery stores. Formerly
under the control of the Storey family |
| Reed Newspapers |
Acquired by Newsquest in 1995 |
| Regional Independent Media (now Johnston) |
Bought by Johnston in April 2002. Owned 102 regional
papers centred on Yorkshire, such as the Yorkshire Post
(founded in 1754 as Leeds Intelligencer) and Sheffield
Star. Formed in February 1997 when United News & Media
sold the papers to the venture capital company Candover for
£360 million. Based in Leeds |
| Scotsman
Publications Ltd |
Controlled by the Barclay brothers' Press Holdings
Ltd (profile).
Publishes The Scotsman (which has a free archive of the
period 1817 to 1920), the Edinburgh Evening News and
Scotland on Sunday (launched August 7, 1988) from Edinburgh
|
| Trinity
Mirror plc |
UK's largest newspaper group since Trinity (then
the largest regional group) took over the Mirror Group in September
1999. Has 240 local and regional newspapers, including Liverpool
Daily Post (1855) and Echo. Doubled
in size from its Liverpool base when it bought Thomson regionals
for £327 million in 1995. Also took over Scottish and Universal
in 1992 for £43 million. Head office in London, registered in
Chester. Has five national newspapers, four sports titles and
60 websites. Partner in This is... and Fish4 websites. |
|
Related newspaper bodies Back to top
|
| ABC |
Audit Bureau of Circulations. Founded 1931. Audits
newspaper and magazine sales; audits Web site traffic; verifies
free publications (VFD). Registration required (free) |
| Ad
Web |
Host site for a range of media companies, including
the Newspaper Society and JICREG, the Joint Industry Committee
for Regional Newspapers. Holds database on regional and local
papers with sales statistics, etc |
| All
Media Scotland |
portal for journalists and media professionals |
| British
Newspaper Library |
In Colindale, north London. Information on contents
and visiting. Also newspaper history and other resources |
| NRS |
National Readership Survey. Measures readership
(as opposed to sales) of major papers and magazines. Yearly
survey asks 38,000+ people about their reading habits. Covers
232 national newspapers and magazines and 12 regional papers |
| Newspaper Society
|
Founded in 1836. Represents 1400 regional newspapers
in the UK. Links to these papers and other related sites |
| Regional
Newspapers Database |
Run by the Newspaper Society |
Scottish
Newspaper
Publishers
Association |
represents 18 groups owning some 100 weekly or
bi-weekly paid papers and 30 freesheets |
Back to top
|
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