Press Round-Up – August
Qualities As with last month, 3 of the quality titles recorded year-on-year increases in their 6-monthly circulations. The Independent on Sunday rose by 4.8% to 390,000, the Sunday Times rose by 3.1% to 1,185,000 and the FT rose by 0.4% to 288,000.
All the other qualities once again recorded losses notably the Observer, down 5.5% to 528,000, and the Daily Telegraph, down 2.7% to 1,035,000.
The monthly ABC figures for August show a number of titles increasing circulation on July’92. The Sunday Telegraph recorded the largest increase, up by 4.9% to 576,000. The Daily Telegraph, Observer and Independent on Sunday also recorded increases on July. The Sunday Times, on the other hand, showed a loss of 5% to 1,112,000.
Mid-Markets The mid-market sector appears to be the healthiest at the moment, with 4 out of the 6 titles in this group showing year -on- year increases in their 6-monthly circulations.
Today’s circulation continued to increase substantially up by 10.3% on March-August’91 to 524,000. The monthly figures show the paper recording an increase of 18.6% on August’91 to 552,000. It is the only paper to have maintained a significant turnaround over a number of months.
The Sunday Express’ March-August’92 circulation figure showed a year-on- year increase of 6.2% to 1,700,000. The monthly figures suggest the effect of the tabloid relaunch may be tailing off, with the paper’s circulation falling by 4.3% on July’92 to 1,800,000.
The Evening Standard and Mail on Sunday also recorded increases in their 6-monthly circulation figures, rising by 3.3% and 1.4% respectively. Populars The 6-monthly ABCs once again show all the popular newspapers losing circulation year-on-year. The Daily Star, People and Sunday Sport continued to show the greatest losses.
The various Royal scandals that dominated the papers at the end of August appear to have boosted monthly circulations slightly. The Sun rose by 2.3% on July’92 to 3,583,000 and the News of the World rose by 2.7% to 4,730,000. The Daily Mirror, which claimed at the time to have dramatically increased its circulation, rose by 0.6% to 2,831,000. The only populars not to show circulation increases on July’92 were the Sunday Mirror and Racing Post.
General August was overshadowed by the popular newspaper’s coverage of the Royal Family and the subsequent implications for press freedom.
During the month a row broke out between the Daily Telegraph and newsagents, when the paper reduced its trade discount from 26.5% to 25% on the Saturday edition. As a result some newsagents decided to boycott the paper. A joint venture between 3 national newspaper groups to produce an advertising – only supplement was announced. Moneysavers, which will comprise entirely of money – off coupons, is to be a joint project from The Telegraph, Express Newspapers and Mirror Group Newspapers. It is in repsonse to a similar project announced by News International in June.
After several relatively quiet months speculation as to the future of Mirror Group Newspapers is re-emerging, following recent dealings in the company’s shares.