ABC National Newspaper Round-Up: July 2007

Daily Newspaper Market

The majority of England’s national newspapers once again recorded a circulation slump, with national dailies seeing an overall dip of 2.2%.

Most of the Quality dailies suffered relatively insignificant declines year on year for July, with the Times recording the largest downturn of the dailies of almost 32,000 copies.

Meanwhile, in the Popular daily sector, the Daily Mirror dropped more than 100,200 issues, whilst the Sun fell by 78,600.

Bucking the downward trend, however, were the Financial Times, the Daily Mail and the Daily Star, which all pushed their final ABC figures upwards.

Quality Daily Titles

The Times was the hardest hit in the Quality Daily sector, losing a little under 32,000 copies year on year for July, with the almost 5% drop leaving its circulation at 635,653.

However, the Times‘ online offering goes from strength to strength, recording a 10.5% increase in visitors in June, overtaking the Sun‘s site to scoop second place behind Guardian Unlimited, according to recent figures from ABCe.

Times Online attracted 9.64 million unique users, compared to 8.73 million in May, a gain of 917,000 visitors (see Times Online Boosts Site Users).

The Independent shed mote than 10,600 copies to see its circulation fall to just over 240,000, whilst the Guardian and the Telegraph lost more than 8,000 copies each.

Market leader the Daily Telegraph recorded a less than 1% drop, with a circulation now of almost 889,300.

Guardian Media Group’s Guardian Unlimited network of websites, which includes MediaGuardian.co.uk, saw a drop of 9.6% from 16.06 million unique users in May to 14.5 million in June.

Compared with June last year, both the Guardian and the Times‘ websites have added around two million unique users year on year. In June 2006, GU recorded 12.2 million unique users, while Times Online attracted 7.74 million in the same month last year (see Times Online Boosts Site Users).

It was the Financial Times, however, that recorded an upturn in July, adding almost 3,000 copies to take its total ABC to almost 426,500.

The business broadsheet raised its cover price in June, from £1 on weekdays to £1.30, with its weekend edition also seeing an increase, by 30p to £1.80 (see Financial Times To Raise Price). This followed a redesign in April, making the paper more accessible and modern, adding more colour and a new masthead to its well-known salmon pink pages (see Redesign And Marketing Push To Modernise Financial Times).

Recently Pearson, publisher of the FT, announced that FT group revenues were up 8% with profits up 28% in the first half of the year (see Media In The City: Dow Jones Agrees Takeover).

Mid-Market Daily Titles

Market leader the Daily Mail added almost 11,000 copies to its circulation year on year, to take its total to just over 2.4 million.

In July, the Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) bought 25 weekly regional newspapers from Trinity Mirror for £64.15 million.

DMGT said that the new titles will extend the reach of its products to a wider audience of advertisers and readers (see Media In The City: Dow Jones Negotiations Near End).

However, the Daily Express‘ total shrunk by almost 39,000 copies, now resting at just over 794,200.

Popular Daily Titles

The Daily Mirror was the hardest hit in real terms in the daily market in July, dropping almost 100,300 issues year on year. The 6% fall now leaves the title’s circulation at over 1.5 million.

The Sun also suffered a hefty blow, dropping 78,600 or 2.5% from its total, which now stands at a little over 3.1 million, still by far the most widely circulated daily in the UK.

The title’s website was toppled from second place of the newspaper sites in June, despite vsitors to the Sun‘s website increasing by 0.2% month on month in June, to just over nine million unique users (see Times Online Boosts Site Users).

A year on year decline of 4.5%, over 19,000, was felt by the Daily Record, which now has a total of around 405,000, whilst the Daily Star bucked the trend, bolstering its total by almost 14,900 issues. The title’s final figure for July now stands at around 812,000.

Sunday Newspaper Market

The Sunday newspaper market was down 3.7% year on year in July, with only two titles showing noteworthy circulation increases.

The Mail On Sunday and the Daily Star Sunday both recorded year on year upturns.

The Mail On Sunday was up by almost 4.5% year on year following its giveaway of three million copies of Prince’s latest album.

Quality Sunday Titles

The Independent On Sunday was the only title in the Quality Sunday sector not to suffer a decline in circulation. It stayed relatively static year on year, with a total figure of around 216,300 copies.

The Sunday Times suffered the largest decline in the sector, of almost 140,000 copies in real terms, leaving it still with an impressive total circulation figure of more than 1.1 million.

The Sunday Telegraph was down by almost 19,400 copies year on year for the period, leaving it with a circulation of almost 636,700.

Also down year on year was the Observer, which fell by almost 3%, giving it a total figure of just over 445,100.

Mid-Market Sunday Titles

It was a good month for the Mail On Sunday, which enjoyed a year on year increase of almost 98,500 copies. Its circulation now rests at more than 2.3 million.

It was no doubt helped by giving away Prince’s latest album, a move which saw the ABC defend its decision to allow newspaper circulation figures that might be boosted by promotions (see ABC Says Newspaper Promotions To Boost Circulation Are Not Against The Rules).

However, the other title in the Mid-Market Sunday sector, the Sunday Express, was down by around 27,000 copies year on year in July, leaving it with a total of around 770,000.

Popular Sunday Titles

The Daily Star Sunday was the only title in the Popular Sunday sector that bolstered its circulation in July, increasing its total by almost 27,000 copies year on year to around 429,900.

The hardest hit in the sector in real terms was the News Of The World, which was down by more than 188,000 copies, leaving its total at almost 3.3 million, still the largest circulation in the Sunday newspaper market.

The People suffered the largest decline in percentage terms of any of the Sundays, decreasing almost 12.5% year on year. The title now has a total circulation figure of over 737,000.

The Sunday Mirror fell by around 74,800 copies year on year in July, leaving it with a total of more than 1.4 million.

Six Monthly Year On Year Analysis

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