Not good circulation news at any of the local dailies last year but the Belfast Telegraph’s drop is the most dramatic of all:
Circulation figures for Northern Ireland newspapers for the period July to December 2010 as published by the Audit Bureau of Circulation today, together with the change year-on-year from the same period in 2009.
Belfast Telegraph 58,491 -11.7pc
Irish News – Morning 44,222 -3.2pc
Sunday Journal 2,598 -0.7pc
Sunday Life 54,435 -9.4pc
Ulster – News Letter 23,669 -3.6pc
The regional weeklies, with the exception of one or two of the community papers, all reflect the same trend.
A UK Unionist and also confirmed devo-sceptic.
I believe the creation of devolved “governments” in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, along with the corresponding unsolved “English Question”, has weakened that Union.
The present-day Conservative Party would be the national party which would come closest to representing my political beliefs. I have previously belonged to the “Friends of the Conservatives” and the UUP but am no longer connected with either party.
Outside of my Unionism, I consider myself as an economic libertarian, social liberal and secularist- e’g. am pro-choice, anti-schools segregated on the grounds of (parents’) religious beliefs.
Very suspicious of NI’s Human Rights’ Oligarchy (in particular the NIHRC) and hope to be writing on this topic, as well as wider UK and European political issues.
