In the second half of 2010, Archant Norfolk’s two daily newspapers, the Eastern Daily Press (up by 0.4%) and Evening News (up by 0.5%) both recorded circulation increases, as did over half of the company’s weekly paid-for papers, including the Lowestoft Journal (up 2.8%) and the Weston and Somerset Mercury (up 1.3%).
(Picture shows: The Norfolk audience growth team which won the Archant Group Team of the Year 2010 awards.)
“Growing our audience and that audience’s engagement with our media is essential for the future of the company,” said Archant chief executive, Adrian Jeakings. “Increasing the number of people that pay for our content, whether that is in a newspaper, magazine or online, is essential.
“Last year I issued a challenge to our senior managers to halt the decline in newspaper circulation and indeed get them growing again. This is against steady falls in circulation for much of the industry in the last few years.
“I am delighted to say that two of our daily papers grew their circulation in the second half of 2010. Also, more than half of our weekly titles were showing year-on-year growth. These results are extraordinary – a remarkable performance. Our Life magazines have also posted an increase in circulation for tenth year in succession.”
In recognition of the circulation performance, Archant Norfolk’s Audience Growth Team, was named Archant Team of the Year in January in its internal awards.
Don Williamson, Head of Sales and Audience Growth, at Archant Norfolk, said: “These are excellent sales performances. Obtaining these copy sale increases has been a real team effort so I do need to pay tribute to my own team as well as those in both editorial and advertising.
“These are our best results for years and we did get inspiration from Adrian Jeakings’ audience growth workshops held earlier in 2010 to tackle copy sales on a number of different fronts.
“We have invested in canvassing for home delivery agents, worked much more closely with the news trade to help them increase their sales of our titles and upped our casual sales by having copies available at every major public event throughout the circulation area.”
Weston Mercury managing editor, Judi Kisiel, said: “I have a great team here in Weston who all work hard week-in week-out, just like all editorial teams right across Archant. It’s a very newsy patch and we have been lucky to have some great stories to cover in the last year.”
