Trinity Mirror turns free Wales weekly into paid-for title

Trinity Mirror is to relaunch its weekly North Wales freesheet the Bangor Mail as a paid-for title, revamping the print edition and website in the process.

The Mail will abandon its current part free, part paid model, under which 81 per cent of its print run was distributed free.

The change means that all of Trinity Mirror's titles in North Wales are now paid-for, including the Caernarfon & Denbigh Herald, the North Wales Weekly News, and the Mail's sister edition, the Holyhead and Anglesey Mail, which is also benefiting from a redesign.

Linda Roberts, executive editor, called it a "momentous day in the history of the Bangor Mail".

"We are convinced that the people of Bangor and the surrounding area will support this move as we have a strong and faithful readership," she added.

North Wales and Cheshire publishing director Rob Irvine said the Mail "thoroughly deserves its own paid-for weekly", adding that the decision had been "very well received by readers, advertisers and community leaders".

The most recent ABC figures show the Mail had an average weekly circulation of 8,529 copies over the second half of 2010, with circulation falling 9 per cent over the six months.

According to a release from Trinity Mirror, the Mail series in North Wales has been a "consistently strong performer in recent years".

Performance has not been strong across Trinity Mirror's regional division, however. The change to a paid-for title for the Mail comes amid substantial losses for company and staffing cuts across its regional and national titles.

Half-yearly financial results announced last week revealed a 36 per cent drop in operating profit at the company's regional publishing arm, down to £18.4 million. Total revenue for the division was down 2 per cent to £149.1 million.

The company announced yesterday that it was suspending six of its regional freesheets in Scotland due to low revenue, and its North East division ncjMedia is facing 15 editorial redundancies.

Trinity Mirror's national titles in Scotland have also been severely affected, with 85 staff at the Daily Record and Sunday Mail – half the editorial workforce – due to be made redundant.

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