National newspaper ABCs: August 2015

The daily market

The summertime lull continued for national newspapers in August, with no titles across the three markets recording any notable change in circulation.

In the daily market, a -3% decline over the period meant that the Financial Times saw the greatest loss (-6,200 copies), with the second-greatest decline coming from the Guardian (-1.8% PoP).

The Daily Telegraph, with a circulation of 483,300, remains the best-performing newspaper in the quality market, followed by The Times (392,500) and then i (276,100).

In contrast, continued declines in circulation for the Independent means that it is the least-read daily title by a long way, shifting just 57,000 copies.

Small boosts in circulation from all titles in the popular market meant that overall daily circulation in August was up 0.2% PoP to a little under 7 million; however, still a far way from being enough to offset much heavier declines over the year.

London Free Press

In the free market, City A.M. continues to record the largest circulation declines, down -3.2% PoP and -8.6% YoY to less than 100,000 copies.

Meanwhile, London Evening Standard was down -2.6% PoP, dropping 22,600 copies compared with July, and Metro down -0.7% PoP.

Overall the free market was down -1.8% both over the period and the year.

The Sunday market

The Sunday market mirrored its daily counterpart in August, with very little change at all.

A 1.5% increase in circulation over the month meant that the Sunday Mirror netted an extra 12,600 copies, while a 2.1% boost saw Sunday Mail add 4,300.

With the largest decline coming from the Observer at just -0.6%, the Sunday market managed a small 0.3% PoP increase; however, titles were down -9.2% YoY.