ABC National Newspaper Round-Up: December 2008

Daily Newspaper Market

The national daily newspaper market suffered an overall circulation fall of more than 5% year on year in December.

The Independent saw the largest fall of the national titles, down 12.3% year on year, followed by the Daily Mirror, down by almost 10% year on year.

Quality Daily Titles

The Independent reported the largest decline in the Quality sector, down by 12.3% to around 200,000, after a real term loss of more than 28,000 copies.

The Daily Telegraph also witnessed a significant downturn of 5.6% year on year, taking its circulation to around 824,000, though it still has the largest circulation of all the Quality titles.

Meanwhile, The Guardian saw a 2.9% year on year fall, leaving it with a total circulation of 343,000 copies.

Both The Times and The Financial Times suffered a similar year on year dip, of 2.3% and 2.2% respectively. The Times‘ circulation now stands at almost 601,000, while The FT‘s sits at 435,000.

Mid-Market Daily Titles

The Daily Mail‘s circulation fell to around 2.1 million copies in December, after a year on year fall of 7.4%, while the Daily Express fell 2.2% to just over 728,000.

Popular Daily Titles

In the popular sector, the Daily Mirror and Daily Record were both down by 9.9% and 9.5% year on year respectively.

The Daily Record now has a circulation of below 350,000 copies, while the Daily Mirror‘s circulation now stands at around 1.3 million.

The Daily Star saw the smallest dip of 0.1%, leaving its circulation fairly static at around 725,000 copies.

Meanwhile, The Sun still has the largest circulation of any of the national dailies, at almost 2.9 million, despite being down by 2.9% year on year.

Sunday Newspaper Market

The Sunday newspaper market was down by 5.9% year on year overall, with the Independent on Sunday and the People both suffering significantly large year on year declines.

Quality Sunday Titles

The Quality sector saw mixed results in December, with the Independent on Sunday posting the largest circulation decline in the overall national newspaper market and the Sunday Times experiencing the only upturn in the overall analysis.

The Independent on Sunday lost more than 34,000 copies, down by 17.5% year on year, taking its circulation down to just 163,000 copies.

During the same period, the Sunday Times saw a 0.6% increase, gaining over 7,200 copies to take its circulation to more than 1.15 million copies, more than double the amount of its nearest competitor in the Quality sector.

Meanwhile, The Sunday Telegraph and the Observer both dipped by a similar amount year on year, down 2.2% and 2.1% respectively.

The Sunday Telegraph‘s circulation now stands at just under 600,000 copies, while the Observer‘s ciculation has slipped to around 420,000 copies.

Mid-Market Sunday Titles

In the Sunday Mid-Market, the Mail on Sunday was down by almost 6.7% year on year, leaving its circulation at just over two million copies.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Express saw a 5.7% year on year dip – a real term decline of almost 40,000 copies – leaving it with a circulation of around 638,000.

Popular Sunday Titles

The Popular sector saw a relatively large percentage decline for the People and the Sunday Mirror, down by 12.2% and 9.1% year on year respectively.

The People lost around 82,000 copies, taking its circulation to just over 592,000, while the Sunday Mirror shed 119,000 copies, leaving it with a circulation of below 1.2 million.

Meanwhile, the Daily Star Sunday‘s circulation now stands at around 342,000 after it suffered a downturn of 5.1% year on year.

The News of the World witnessed a similar decline of 5.7% year on year, however, it still remains the overall top selling Sunday paper with a circulation of just under three million copies.

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