ABSTRACT
Regional newspapers have a long and distinguished history in the UK, dating back to the 17th century. But by the 21st century, faced with long-term and dramatic hard copy circulation decline, the UK regional press has sought to move its brand and audience online. Until 2020, whilst actual sales of hard copies of regional newspapers had undeniably shrunk drastically, a positive claim was made that audiences for local news were large and growing, so the public's appetite for regional news was just as healthy as it had been through the best of the previous 300 years. Newspapers have suffered a natural and significant hard copy circulation decline as young people have failed to join the ranks of newspaper purchasers, preferring to consume their news in digital formats, free of charge. Newspaper publishers began to decide they should break news first online.
