ABC National Newspaper Round-Up: September 2011

The daily national newspaper market saw circulation figures drop once again in September. Overall the market is down -2.6% PoP and -7.1% YoY.

Only one title in the daily market posted an increase – the FT was up 3.8% on August.

The Sunday market saw circulation figures fall -3.9% PoP. However, the closure of News International’s News of the World following the phone-hacking scandal continues to impact YoY figures – overall, the Sunday market is up 19.6%.

Daily Newspaper Market

Quality Daily Titles

• All of the titles posted YoY and PoP declines, with the exception of the Financial Times, which enjoyed a 3.8% PoP rise
• i continues to sit above The Independent with a circulation of 184,402 (compared to the Indy‘s 176,983)
• The Daily Telegraph saw the biggest actual loss in September (down by almost 25,000 copies on August), but remains the top-selling quality title
• The Guardian posted the highest percentage decrease over the year – down -16.4% (45,563 copies)
• The Times also recorded a significant loss YoY – down 57,314 copies

Mid-Market Daily Titles

• The Daily Mail posted a -6.3% YoY and -2.7% PoP drop but its total remains just above the two-million copies mark
• The Daily Express saw its circulation fall -6.4% YoY and -1.9% PoP to 618,000 copies

Popular Daily Titles

• All of the titles in the tabloid market saw figures drop both YoY and PoP
• The Daily Star posted the biggest percentage fall YoY – down -21.2%
• However, The Sun suffered the largest actual loss – down by more than 70,000 copies PoP and almost 250,000 copies YoY
• The Sun remains the top-selling daily title with a total circulation of more than 2.7 million copies

Sunday Newspaper Market

The start of autumn saw circulation figures fall over the month, though the Sunday tabloid and mid-market titles are still enjoying the aftermath of the News of the World closing.

Quality Sunday Titles

• All of the Sunday broadsheets posted both YoY and PoP declines
• The Observer suffered the biggest percentage drop, down -16.1% YoY
• Meanwhile, The Sunday Times saw its circulation fall by almost 108,000 copies YoY, taking its total below the one million copies mark once again

Mid-Market Sunday Titles

• The Sunday Express is the only title in our analysis to post a YoY and PoP increase – up 21.4% and 0.3% respectively
• The Mail on Sunday‘s total dropped -5.6% during the month but is still up 0.5% on this time last year

Popular Sunday Titles

• All three Sunday red-tops enjoyed YoY increases (although all three posted PoP declines)
• The Sunday Mirror is the top-selling tabloid with a total of 1.8 million copies – up 63.9% YoY
• The Daily Star Sunday recorded a 89.3% YoY rise (down -5.6% YoY), while the People posted a 57.6% YoY increase (down -5.9% PoP)