ABC National Newspaper Round-Up: August 2009

Daily Newspaper Market

The overall daily newspaper market dipped by 0.4% in August, with all of the titles bar two suffering period on period declines.

The Daily Record and The Sun were the only titles to buck the downward trend, enjoying a period on period increases of 1.2% and 0.2% respectively.

Quality Daily Titles

The Daily Telegraph remains the highest selling quality newspaper in our analysis, despite seeing its circulation fall by 0.6% period on period to 814,000 copies.

The Independent also dipped by 0.6% period on period, as well as losing a hefty 18.3% year on year, leaving it with a total below 188,000 copies

The Financial Times and The Times also reported losses of 0.4% and 0.7% respectively.

The FT now has a total circulation of nearly 396,000 copies, while the Times’ total sits just above 576,000 copies.

In terms of percentage loss, the Guardian suffered the highest decline of 5.3% period on period – a real term loss of more than 17,000 copies – leaving its total at around 311,000.

Mid-Market Daily Titles

The Daily Express dipped by 0.5% period on period to just over 730,000 copies, while its fellow mid-market title the Daily Mail was down 0.3%.

Despite its slight loss, the Mail retains a healthy circulation of more than 2.17 million copies.

Popular Daily Titles

In contrast to all of the other national newspapers, the Daily Record and The Sun had a good month, recording period on period increases of 1.2% and 0.2% respectively.

The Daily Record‘s circulation now sits above 347,000 copies, while The Sun‘s total remains at more than 3.1 million copies.

However, the Daily Mirror lost over 15,000 readers in August – down by 1.1% period on period – to 1.32 million copies.

The Daily Star, meanwhile, enjoyed an impressive 18% year on year increase despite remaining almost static in August, losing just 292 copies period on period.  Its total circulation rests just below 887,000 copies.

Sunday Newspaper Market

The overall Sunday newspaper sector also suffered a period on period decline in circulation – of 1.0%.

Three titles in the Sunday market – the Independent on Sunday, the Sunday Express and the News of the World – managed to record slight increases over the period.

Most titles, however, lost sales during August.

Quality Sunday Titles

All of the titles in the quality sector were down period on period with the exception of the Independent on Sunday, which managed to increase its circulation by 0.3% to nearly 161,000 copies.

The Observer suffered the largest loss across the Sunday market, losing just under 37,000 copies, or 9.2% of its total period on period.

The Sunday Times remained the comfortable market leader within the quality sector, despite a 2.2% circulation fall, at 1.1 million copies. The paper was the only Sunday paper to have a year on year increase, at 0.7%.

Mid-Market Sunday Titles

In the mid-market, the Mail on Sunday was down by 1.3% period on period to just over 2 million copies, while the Sunday Express had a slight increase of 0.2% to nearly 647,000 copies.

Popular Sunday Titles

Within the popular sector, the Daily Star Sunday lost 3.2% of its circulation in August period on period, remaining just above the 400,000 copies level.

Both The People and the Sunday Mirror were also down period on period, by 1.4% and 0.9% respectively.

The titles now have a circulation of 586,000 for The People and 1.2 million for the Sunday Mirror.