The latest newspaper ABCs to be released for the national newspapers show some encouraging signs for a number of titles, while others continue along the now familiar road of gradual decline.
Qualities The six – monthly ABC figures for February to July’92 show three of the quality newspapers to have increased their circulations. The Sunday Times rose by 3.2% to 1,200,000, the Independent on Sunday rose by 2.9% to 388,000 and the Financial Times rose by 1.3% to 292,000.
The Sunday Times has continued to benefit from the serialisation of Andrew Morton’s book and the accompanying media coverage.
All the other qualities recorded year- on-year drops in circulation for February to July, although the monthly figures show a slight upturn on June for the Independent and Guardian.
Mid-Markets All at Express Newspapers would have been eagerly awaiting the July ABC figure for the Sunday Express and not without reason. According to the ABC figures, the relaunched tabloid edition sold 200,000 more than its broadsheet predecessor. The monthly figure for July was 1,881,000 an increase of 12.2% on June. The Mail on Sunday recorded a circulation of 1,934,000 for July, up by 2.2% on June.
The Sunday Express will now be anxious to maintain this level of increase for several months in order to bridge the gap between the 2 mid-market Sundays.
The six – monthly circulations show a year-on-year increase for the Sunday Express of 6.1% to 1,725,000 and an increase of 1.2% for the Mail on Sunday to 1,937,000. The daily counterparts did not fair as well with both titles recording circulation falls. Today, however, reinforced last month’s upturn with an increase of 5.7% on February to July’91 to give a figure of 509,000.
Populars The popular market is the one area where all the titles have consistently recorded drops in circulation. The News of the World and the Sunday Mirror fared best in this group with both papers recording a fall of 1.8% on February to July’91. At the other end of the field circulation for the People fell by 8.3%.
The Sunday Sport, renowned for its dramatic losses, did manage an increase in its monthly figures, rising by 9.8% on June’92 to 544,000.
General In July the national newspaper market was dominated by the relaunch of the Sunday Express. Aside from this the month was a relatively quiet one.
Dealings in Telegraph shares began after a poorly received share offer, shares opened at 288p far less than the 325p that had been expected. Later in the month the company announced an increase in pre-tax profits of 13% to £21.6m for the six-months to June’92.
MGN shares resumed trading at 52p, they were suspended at 125p last December.
A number of papers gained new editors during July. A reshuffle of editors at Associated Newspapers was sparked off by the editorship of The Times becoming vacant. This was later awarded to Peter Stothard.
