The newspaper is the sixth largest-selling regional title in England. In 2001, after a re-design and relaunch, it was named Regional Newspaper of the Year. In 2006 the paper attempted to reduce costs by ceasing publication of its localised weekday editions for Loughborough, Hinckley, North West Leicestershire, Melton Mowbray and Market Harborough. They have been replaced with two general editions, covering the east and west of Leicestershire respectively. There are however still two editions published daily to cover the city of Leicester itself. The "Mercury" has retained its reporting staff in each of the market towns, despite substantial editorial staff cuts in other areas – achieved through non-replacement of departing staff. The company also closed its "Sports Mercury" edition due to declining readership, and the fact ABC rules no longer permitted the paper to include the sport paper's sales within the circulation figure for the main daily editions. In addition, the paper relaunched its "Sporting Blue" sports newspaper with tête-bêche binding to cover the city's two major sports teams; Leicester City and Leicester Tigers.