Sales of The Argus are rising and the paper is now one of the top performing regional papers in the United Kingdom, show figures just released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

The average weekday sale between January and June this year was 49,047 - an increase of 0.14 per cent or 350 copies a week - compared with the same time last year and more than 5,000 copies a week more than in the July to December period last year.

The Argus on Saturday was 0.9 per cent up on the previous year.

The figures mean The Argus achieved the eighth best circulation performance by an evening paper and was well ahead of the sector's average of minus four per cent.

This compares with some of Sussex's weekly newspapers which lost sales, including the Eastbourne Gazette (minus 3.9 per cent), Eastbourne Herald (minus 1.2 per cent), Sussex Express (minus 5.8 per cent), Crawley Observer (minus 18.4 per cent), Mid Sussex Times (minus 3.4 per cent) and Worthing Herald (minus 0.4 per cent).

The Argus already has an average daily readership of 170,506 and is read by more people in Sussex than any other newspaper, including national dailies.

The paper has invested in a redesign and new sections,including Woman, Extra and If It's On . . . and is now better than ever for local news, views, features and sport for the whole of Sussex.

If it's happening . . . it's in.