National Newspaper Round-Up – September

The death of Princess Diana meant that there was a large increase in the number of newspapers sold in September as the nation craved news of the latest developments and reactions. Sales in the broadsheet market increased by over 506,000 to 6.19 million while the mid-market saw a rise of over 567,000 to 7.16 million. The tabloids however did not do so well, perhaps being hit by public anger at their previous use of paparazzi photographs. This market saw a sales drop of over 285,000 copies (1.7%) to 16.1 million, its lowest September sales figure for some years. In fact, of all the nationals only four titles saw a year on year decrease in sales for the month and these were all tabloids.

Among the broadsheets the Sunday Telegraph again put in a strong performance, with an increase of 24% and the FT also did well with a sales increase of 11%. The Independent also performed well with a greater year on year increase than all of the other daily broadsheets bar the FT. The rise of 8% to 288,182 was helped by the title’s redesign allied with a week-long cut in its cover-price to 20p. The Daily Mail showed strong sales growth in September with a rise of 11% while its Sunday counterpart grew almost 10%. The Express and Express on Sunday also enjoyed good sales. It was the Daily Star which lost most sales across the whole national newspaper market with a drop of over 5% to 729,991 while the Sun, People and Sunday Mirror all saw drops of around 3%. Only the Mirror and the News of the World bucked the trend.