Daily Welsh newspaper sales fall by up to a third

Some newspapers have introduced tablet editions aimed at tech-savvy readers

Circulations of all the daily Welsh newspapers have fallen since last year, according to official figures.

The Newport-based South Wales Argus saw the biggest drop, down 32.2% to an average of daily sale of 13,952 in the second half of 2013.

The figures came from the ABC, the organisation which measures newspaper circulation.

But some Welsh newspapers saw traffic to their websites rise by up to 35% as more people seek their news online.

The ABC figures showed that daily papers produced in Wales all saw sales fall in 2013:

• South Wales Argus fell 32.2% to an average of 13,952

• South Wales Echo fell by 19% to 24,261

• South Wales Evening Post fell by 12.3% to 30,582

• Daily Post fell 9% to 27,126

• Wrexham, Flintshire & Cheshire Leader fell 6.1% to 13,653

• Western Mail fell by just 0.8% to 22,854

However, some weekly papers saw their sales rise:

• North Wales Chronicle rose by 0.8%

• North Wales Pioneer rose by 0.2%

• Wrexham Leader rose by 0.2%

• Flintshire Standard rose by 0.1%

Other weekly papers did not fare so well:

• Wales on Sunday fell 15.6% to 19,131 copies

• County Times and Express (based in Welshpool) fell by 5.5%

• Denbighshire Free Press fell by 7%

• Rhyl, Prestatyn & Abergele Journal fell by 0.4%

The ABC has also published circulation details for smaller Welsh newspapers that only have their circulations audited every 12 months.

They include titles like the Glamorgan Gazette and the other "Celtic" weekly papers, and most of the other local weeklies around Wales.

The only one of these titles to record an increase in circulation was the Caerphilly, Ystrad Mynach & Bargoed Campaign with a 0.6% rise.

Online audience

However, news websites have seen their users increase during 2013

• WalesOnline.co.uk saw monthly unique users rise by 35.3% to 1,906,418 compared to last year

• The South Wales Evening Post website saw them rise 35% to 513,116

• DailyPost.co.uk unique users rose by 9.1% to 412,087

• Although the South Wales Argus is not audited by the ABC, editor Kevin Ward said it had 530,000 unique users in January this year, up 49% on January 2013

Alongside its Wales Online and Daily Post websites, Trinity Mirror last year launched digital editions of its Western Mail, Daily Post and Wales on Sunday newspapers aimed at users of tablets and other mobile devices.