The publisher of the Gloucester Citizen, Gloucestershire Echo and Western Daily Press has been hit by the ongoing fallout from moves by the likes of Facebook to de-rank news on its platforms.

The group - which also owns the Express newspapers, the Daily Mirror, Daily Star and regional newspapers across the UK - revealed that page views plunged by a third year-on-year in the first quarter after "major platforms" de-prioritised news last year, reports the Evening Standard..

Overall, digital revenues fell 8.5% in the first three months of 2024, although this was better than the 14.2% fall seen in the previous quarter.

With events like the European Football Championships, Olympics and elections coming up, Reach said it had the opportunity to generate high levels of interest by entertaining and informing our audiences

Firms such as Facebook owner Meta moved last year to prioritise user-generated content above news on their social media sites, which has hit traditional media groups hard.

But Reach said the impact was partially offset in the first quarter by strengthening yield per page, while it said the year-on-year fall in so-called referral traffic from social media platforms will also lessen through the year.

The update showed overall group revenues fell 6.7%, with print revenues down by 6%.

The news comes in the same week that the price of the weekly Citizen newspaper has increased once again by 10p to £2.80.