ABC National Newspaper Round-Up – August 2004

Football First saw circulation shoot up by an impressive 37.2% during August to just over the 30,000 as the start of the Premiership season lifted sales at the Sunday sports title, according to the latest ABC national newspaper results.

Elsewhere, the Sunday Mirror experienced a solid 5.7% month on month rise to earn a total circulation of just under 1.7 million. However, its daily sibling the Daily Mirror only managed a slight 0.2% increase during the same period to 1.82 million.

The Mirror‘s fiercest rival, the Sun, also failed to shine with circulation dipping by 0.4% during August to just under 3.4 million. However, the title still managed to retain its position as the UK’s biggest selling national newspaper.

The Sun‘s Sunday sister title News Of The World performed marginally better with sales rising by 1.1% in month on month analysis to almost 3.8 million. The mid-market Sunday Express also performed well with circulation rising by an impressive 6.8% to top the one million mark at 1.05 million.

However, last month’s ABC result brought less than impressive news to the majority of broadsheet titles, with the Financial Times losing 3.5% during August to 406,438 and the Observer dipping by 2.3% during the same period to a total of 431,182.

Meanwhile, the Times and the Guardian also suffered declines with the former dipping by 0.4% to 648,000 and the latter by 1.8% to 364,500. However, the Guardian is looking to improve its fortunes by reducing its size to the Berliner format favoured by French titles Le Monde and Les Echos Preserves (see Guardian Takes Titles Compact With £50 Million Investment).

Quality Titles

The Business continued to see the largest year on year increase in circulation in the six months to August, rising by a mammoth 112.3% to a total of 218,691. The newspaper continues to benefit from a distribution deal with the Daily Mail, despite it coming to an end months ago. Meanwhile, the Independent also performed well with its circulation rising by 18% year on year to just under 261,000.

Mid-Market Titles

Year on year analysis of the ABC results for the six months to August shows a continued decline amongst mid-market titles, with all but the Sunday Express experiencing a downturn. However, despite its increase of 2.6% year on year, the title has yet to breach the one million mark, with its total circulation now standing at just under 980,000.

Popular Titles

A lacklustre set of results prevailed amongst the popular titles in the six months to August, with only Richard Desmond’s Daily Star and Daily Star Sunday experiencing positive growth. The Daily Star achieved a 3.1% increase in circulation to 903,829 and its Sunday sibling managed a 5.1% rise during the same period to over half a million.

Metro Titles

The Associated Newspaper-owned commuter friendly Metro titles continued to perform well during August, with their overall certified distribution rising by 4.3% year on year. Metro North West was the only edition to experience a decline with distribution dipping by 1.1 during August.

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