ABC National Newspaper Round-Up: August 2010

Daily Newspaper Market

August was another poor month for the daily newspaper market, with circulations continuing to decline compared with this time last year.

The summer month saw the overall market fall 5.5% year on year, although there was a small month on month increase of 0.2%.

Quality Daily Titles

• The quality sector seemed to be most affected by the holiday season, as it was in July.
• The Independent fared better than most, down just 2.9% year on year and 0.8% month on month.
• The Daily Telegraph, The Times and the Guardian suffered the highest percentage decreases, all down by more than 12% year on year.
• However, the Daily Telegraph remains the most read title in the quality sector with a total circulation of 673,000.

Mid-Market Daily Titles

• Both mid-market titles saw year on year losses but month on month increases.
• The Daily Mail enjoyed an increase of 2.4% period on period, taking its total to 2.17 million copies.

Popular Daily Titles

• Two of the four red-tops posted month on month increases – the England football squad’s scandalous private lives certainly provided a boost for the Daily Record and the Daily Star in August.
• However, the Daily Mirror and The Sun both saw their circulations fall year on year and month on month.
• Despite this, The Sun remains the most read daily newspaper with a total circulation of more than 3 million.

Sunday Newspaper Market

It was much the same in the Sunday newspaper market, which suffered an overall 7.6% year on year decline.

However, a couple of quality titles, the mid-market titles and one Sunday tabloid managed to increase their circulation compared with July’s figures.

Quality Sunday Titles

• The Independent on Sunday and the Sunday Telegraph fared better than their quality counterparts, both posting month on month rises.
• However, the Sunday Telegraph recorded the highest year on year percentage decline in the group, closely followed by the recently revamped Observer.
• The Sunday Times easily remains the leading Sunday broadsheet with a total circulation of over one million copies.

Mid-Market Sunday Titles

• Both titles in the mid-market sector posted month on month increases, though the Sunday Express fared badly year on year.
• The Mail on Sunday still leads the mid-market sector, despite struggling to get its total over the two million copies-mark again.

Popular Sunday Titles

• The Sunday tabloids put in a poor performance compared with July, when all the red-tops recorded decent month on month increases.
• The Daily Star Sunday was the only exception – the title enjoyed a 3% month on month rise.
• The News of the World, which has dominated the headlines itself in recent weeks following the Pakistan cricket revelations, continues to lead the overall Sunday market with an impressive circulation of 2.9 million copies, despite a 8.1% year on year decline.