Regional daily newspaper sales fell by an average of 18% in the first half of 2025 with just one title (the Belfast-based Irish News) above 20,000 copies per day.
The average year-on-year change is based on the 36 daily titles which have reported average sales for the first half of this year and the same period in 2024.
The 2025 figures show a faster rate of overall decline than in the same period a year a year go, when regional dailies audited by ABC were down by 17%.
Only three regional daily newspapers in the UK now sell more than 10,000 copies per day (none of which are based in England).
The Irish News is now the top-selling regional daily in the UK averaging 20,857 sales per day, down 8% year on year.
It has maintained its number one ranking as the UK’s top-selling national daily newspaper, having displaced the long-running leader DC Thomson’s Aberdeen-based daily Press & Journal last year.
Irish News editor Chris Sherrard said: “Our ABC figure represents a hell of a lot of people who tell us they are prepared to put their hand in their pocket for our journalism every day.
“We know the industry is facing seemingly endless headwinds so we must navigate those whilst maintaining the standards that we have set and which our readers have come to expect from us.”
The Press & Journal maintained second spot (circulation of 19,525, down 10% year on year). Before last year, it had been on top of the ranking since 2018.
Third best-selling title was Dundee’s The Courier also published by DC Thomson (14,836, down 11%) and in fourth place was Reach PLC’s Liverpool Echo (9,008, down 18%).
Twenty-two, or 61%, of the 36 newspapers included in ABC’s regional daily report for the first half of the year had a circulation below 5,000. In percentage terms, this is up from 57% versus the same period last year.
Paisley Daily Express, based in Scotland, recorded both the lowest print circulation and the biggest year-on-year decline, falling by almost half (recording daily circulation of 743, down 40%).
Not all regional daily newspapers are included in the ABC figures, for example, the Belfast Telegraph does not report an ABC-audited circulation figure.
Earlier this year, Press Gazette data on local news websites showed most growing traffic year on year. Reach titles dominate the top websites ranking, with the Manchester Evening News number with a monthly audience of 12.6 million. Print, however, remains the main source of revenue for the UK’s leading local news publishers.
In print, average newsstand sales among the UK regional dailies audited by ABC were down by 17% and paid subscriptions were down by 15%. This is a further decline from the first half of 2024 (print sales down 16%, paid subscriptions down 13%).
Digital replica editions are a tiny proportion of the total for most UK regional daily newspapers and fell by an average of 2% year on year.
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
