ABC October 2013: Daily Mail and Sun record declines

Few national newspapers saw any growth in October, with the largest increase in circulation belonging to the Observer at just 2.3%, according to the latest ABC national newspaper round-up.

Daily titles

In the quality market, it was only the Financial Times and Guardian that recorded any growth, though change was minimal, with the papers seeing a 0.4% and 0.6% rise in circulation, respectively. However, over the year, the Financial Times has dropped in circulation by over 50,000 – significantly more than any other newspaper in the quality market.

Down -1.2%, the Times lost almost 4,600 copies over the month, however suffered a much greater loss year on year, down -3.6% and losing 14,400 copies.

The mid-market shared similar results, with both the Daily Express and Daily Mail down (-2% and -1.4%, respectively). The Daily Mail came off worse out of the two, dropping in circulation by almost 25,000 over the month, and just over 113,000 on this time last year.

In the popular market, the Sun dropped in circulation by a substantial 62,444 in October, and an even bigger 234,300 over the year – marking it as the daily title to see the biggest loss both month on month and year on year.

All other titles in the popular market were down, and overall, the daily titles decreased their monthly circulation by -1.7% over the month, and -7.3% over the year.

London Free Press

The London Free Press fared slightly better as it celebrated a small monthly gain overall, up 1.1% – an extra 16,600 copies combined.

While City A.M. was down -3.7% month on month, both the London Evening Standard and Metro (London) were up, with ESI Media’s title adding over 14,000 copies to its circulation in October.

Sunday titles

The Sunday titles mirrored the dailies in October, with the majority seeing no growth at all.

There was marginally better news for the quality market, however, with just the Independent on Sunday recording a monthly decrease in circulation at -1.1%.

Despite all titles seeing decreases in circulation over the year, the Sunday Times netted an extra 13,100 copies over the month, followed by the Observer at just over 5,200.

There were no monthly or yearly increases to report in the mid-market, with the greatest month on month loss belonging to the Sunday Express at 11,700, and the biggest year on year loss belonging to the Mail on Sunday at almost 111,000.

The popular market saw the Sun on Sunday lose almost 35,000 copies over the month – almost 200,000 over the year – while the Sunday Mirror followed closely behind with a monthly drop in circulation of 32,160.

Overall, the Sunday titles were down -1.4% month on month and -8.3% year on year.