ABC December 2013: Only the Guardian sees growth

The festive period appears to have hit the national newspaper market with the latest ABC results for December 2013 showing declines all round – except for the Guardian, which reported a marginal increase.

Daily titles

In the quality market, while the Guardian saw a slight 1.7% lift in circulation over the month, all other titles reported minor losses.

However, it was the yearly circulation decreases that really made a mark, with the Financial Times dropping almost 50,000 copies (-17.4%) and the Independent – which is reportedly looking for a buyer – decreasing by almost 11,000 (-13.9%).

According to reports in the Guardian, the Lebedevs have been looking to get rid of the Independent and its sister titles, ‘i’ (down -1.7% period on period) and the Independent on Sunday for some time, in a bid to “offload loss-making papers that they see no prospect of turning into profit”.

Though down a comparatively smaller -2.9% over the year, the Times lost 11,600 copies overall and just -703 copies in December.

In the mid market, the Daily Mail saw a sizeable 104,000 decrease in yearly circulation (-5.6%), while a -0.8% decrease over the month lost the newspaper over 14,000 copies.

The popular market saw the Daily Mirror take the biggest hit of the month, down -3.5% (almost 35,000 copies) while the Sun dropped -2.2% (almost 46,000 copies).

Overall, the daily titles were down -7.1% (588,000) year on year and -1.7% (131,000) period on period.

London Free Press

Christmas also took its toll on the London Free Press, seeing the London Evening Standard lose 15,000 copies over the period – accounting for the majority of loss in the sector.

The news comes as the paper’s publishers, ESI Media, announced that the Evening Standard is to increase its print run from 700,000 to 900,000 copies in January – covering all 33 London boroughs for the first time.

Overall the Free Press was down -2.4% (39,000) year on year and -1.2% (19,000) period on period.

Sunday titles

No title in the Sunday market recorded any yearly or period increase, with certain titles taking significant hits.

In the quality market, the Sunday Times dropped almost 23,000 copies over December, followed by the Sunday Telegraph – down 11,800.

The Independent on Sunday fared worse than its daily counterpart, down -2.4% (2,500) period on period and -12.2% (14,300) year on year. However, the Sunday edition managed to maintain a significantly higher circulation than the daily.

The mid market saw the Mail on Sunday lose almost 47,000 copies in December, and over the year, the paper was down by almost 117,000.

In the popular market, the Sun on Sunday posted similar results to its daily counterpart in terms of yearly circulation, however suffered significantly greater in December with a total decline of almost 80,000 copies.

Overall the Sunday titles were down -9% (725,000) year on year and -3% (223,000) period on period.

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