Even more people follow the Leader as we become best performing weekly paper

Figures released last Thursday by the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) revealed that sales of The Leader are up 4.8 per cent overall during the first half of 2011, bucking the national trend of sales declining.

That pushes our sales up to 3,703 - and we would like to thank each one of our readers for making this happen.

These figures come at a time when weekly newspaper sales are in decline, some titles have dropped by as much as 12.7%. If this current pattern continues then it won’t be long until the Leader is the biggest selling title in the district.

Leader Editor, John Hooks, said, “This is amazing news and all of us at the paper are thrilled.

“These results are down to a lot of hard work from our staff and I would like to thank them for their part in this remarkable achievement.

“But we will not rest on our laurels. We will continue to bring the district the best reports in news, sport and features, complemented by pictures from all the big events happening in the area in both our Banbridge and Dromore editions.

“And, on top of that, you can catch up with what;’s happening online with our websites, Facebook and Twitter pages.

“We are determined to keep pace with the changing face of the newspaper industry and plans are already in the pipeline for a Leader mobile phone app

“However if there is an area you think we could improve on then we would love to hear from you - contact me at [email protected].”