6 thoughts on “Regional daily ABCs: Brighton Argus sees smallest print circulation drop as Ipswich Star and Cambridge News biggest fallers”

1. It really is shocking to see the virtual collapse of Archants four daily titles in the east with the EDP selling a pitiful 26,700 copies in a catchment area approaching a million people. As for the Ipswich titles and the Norwich morning news, they must surely be hugely at risk of closure, they’ve lost their readers and carry so little advertising there’s almost nothing to lose by doing so and with substantial cost savings to be made ,I can’t see any other viable option left open to the board other than going online as free reader editions only.
   The board must also accept responsibility for sanctioning the promotions of easy to manage staff into senior positions,both editorially and commercially, just to save a few pounds,a policy which has resulted in costly losses further down the line with weak and irrelevant content, free-falling ad revenues and the dreadful figures ABC figures it’s hard to see where these troubled titles will go next.

2. The only thing which is keeping all four Archant titles alive now is the company-owned printing press, frankly. Even then, the cost of the 40-odd mile-journey down the A140 to Ipswich should now be enough to finish off the Star, as well as the Essex edition of the Anglian. All of this is down to the total mismanagement from senior personnel over the past five years, but do any of their heads fall? No, it’s the likes of photographers and subs instead. Is it any wonder that where I live a free, six-times-a-year magazine has more than twice the reach of the Norwich Evening News. I know that if I wanted to take a small advert I’d rather be going there than an operation where a much-respected local government reporter has to write stories such as “Greggs in Norwich is set to shut, but new one will open barely 50 metres away”. Utter drivel, but I notice that Messrs Kelly and Anglesey never tweet about this – though they do continue to promote the floundering New European. When that goes they’ve had it.