Newspaper print sales plunge but digital traffic soars

THE decline in print sales for the North West’s regional newspapers has continued, but the losses have been mitiaged by web traffic growth.

ABC figures for the first-half of 2015 reveal the only newspaper in the region to grow its print sales was the Newquest-owned Lancashire Telegraph, based in Blackburn.

But this only thanks to the addition of 1,615 free bulk copies to its circulation.

Lancashire Telegraph sales rose 1.6% to 13,304. But Trinity Mirror’s big city titles the Manchester Evening News (60,327, -14%) and the Liverpool Echo (59,754 -4.3%) continued to suffer.

The Preston-based Johnston Press title the Lancashire Evening Post fell 11.9% to 13,129 and the Blackpool Gazette dipped 13.8% to 12,126.

Newsquest’s Bolton News fell to 11,157, a fall of 9.7% and the Oldham Chronicle tumbled 11.9% to 8,663.

While print sale figures painted a depressing scenario for the local newspaper industry, figures for digital traffic provided a more optimistic outlook.

Across the UK regional newspaper websites grew their daily total of unique browsers by an average of 32.8% year on year.

The MEN was the most popular regional website with an average of 573,342 unique browsers per day – up 74%.

Similarly, the Echo grew 90.1% to 467,766 and The Bolton News grew its web traffic 40.5% to 50,249.

The Lancashire Telegraph grew 27.7% to 47,537, the LEP was up 30.56% to 28,356 and Blackpool Gazette was up 3.5% to 30,563.