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Leading dailies were among the fallers including The Manchester Evening News, which dropped behind The Liverpool Echo, despite a decline in the Echo's sales of 6.1%.

The Guardian Media Group-owned MEN, which sells 114,676 copies from Monday to Saturday, now lags behind the Echo by over 3,000 copies. This time last year, the MEN's circulation was almost 12,000 ahead. The MEN's decline can be partly explained by the 60,000 free copies, which it now distributes in Manchester city centre.

A GMG spokesman said: "The ABC figures only tell part of the story. The MEN is now a part-paid, part-free newspaper which is delivering more value to more readers and advertisers than at any time over the past decade."

The Birmingham Mail fell by 17.5% to 75,787, shedding 16,119 copies from its Monday to Saturday circulation compared to the same period last year. Trinity Mirror stressed that the fall was due to a relaunch that pitched the Mail to a different market.

Steve Dyson, editor of the Birmingham Mail, said: "As we said at the time of the relaunch, this is not an overnight, quick-fix solution but a long-term strategy. As we expected, these latest ABC figures reflect a continued downward trend. However, while the Jan-June 06 figure shows a sharp year-on-year fall, going forward the trend is expected to improve, with the rate of decline slowing during the second half of the year."

The Express & Star papers, owned by the Midland News Association, remain the biggest evening paper, with a combined circulation of 149,748, down 4.4% from last year.

Lynne Anderson, communications director at the Newspaper Society, said: "Changing patterns of media consumption and the massive growth in multimedia platforms provided by regional press alongside the core newspaper brands, mean that circulation alone no longer provides a complete measure of a centre's reach.

"The Newspaper Society is working with ABC and JICREG to establish a new geographic system of audience measurement that will combine print and online audience data to provide a more accurate picture of the audiences an advertiser can reach through use of regional press advertising."