There's no press like home

As national papers struggle, local weeklies' sales are rising. Clare Rudebeck reports

"M20 noise is a health hazard", reads the front-page headline of the Kent Messenger, the country's biggest-selling weekly newspaper. Cornwall's West Briton, number two in the weeklies' sales chart, led last week with the news that Truro Cathedral will be extended. Global war it is not. But while nationals struggle to maintain their circulations, weekly papers are on the up. Even their advertising revenue is buoyant.

In the first half of this year, 57 per cent of regional weeklies increased readership. Troubled times, it seems, make us reach for the local rag. "It's about trustworthiness," says John Pearn, the West Briton's editor. "We stick to the knitting. We're very straightforward. If people read something in the West Briton, they know it's true." A survey commissioned by the Newspaper Society, which represents the regional press, showed that local papers are seen as more trustworthy than all other media.

The bond between communities and their local papers was shown when the national media descended on Soham in Cambridgeshire. Last week, the father of one of the murdered schoolgirls, Kevin Wells, gave his first interview since his daughter Holly's disappearance to his regional paper, the Cambridge Evening News. He stuck with what he knew.

The readership of weeklies has grown by 10 per cent in the past 10 years. "The more local the paper, the better it does," says Lynne Anderson, the communications director at the Newspaper Society. Certainly, many weeklies are flourishing while some regional daily papers, such as the Yorkshire Evening Post and Liverpool Echo, have seen circulations fall.

Recently, the Kent Messenger campaigned for a bridge over a dangerous stretch of the M20 after a local girl, Jade Hobbs, was killed there. It was successful, and the new footbridge opened two weeks ago.

This close link with readers means the paper handles stories differently. Simon Irwin, the associate editorial director of the Kent Messenger Group, says: "We don't sensationalise stories. We live here. We know if something is a major scandal or not. If we pretended it was, we'd just be insulting our readers' intelligence."

In the last six months Kent Messenger has increased its circulation by 34.3 per cent to 64,300. This is partly due to the decision by the group to stop producing the Friday evening edition of the daily Kent Today, including it in the weekly. But it still outsells the West Briton by about 10,000 copies a week.

While advertising revenues for the nationals fall, owners of locals are reporting growth. Last month, Johnston Press, owner of 244 papers, reported advertising sales up by 1.2 per cent since last year. "Ninety per cent of advertising in the local press is from the local marketplace," says Lynne Anderson. "Only a small proportion of big brands advertise. We are seeing solid growth because people still shop locally."

Local papers may not be popular with young people – which may be why the West Briton wrote last week about the peace of Truro being disturbed by "grunge bands". But, says the editor, John Pearn, we all become local paper readers in the end. "We don't deliberately try to exclude young people, but we know our readership is older and those young people will come round eventually."