Evening Standard and Sun titles see solid growth in January

After a quiet festive period, the majority of national newspaper titles were up in January with the Sun and Sun on Sunday seeing good growth, and after extending its reach into Zone 6, the London Evening Standard recorded double-digit growth for the month.

Daily titles

Three of the titles in the quality market saw growth in January, with the Guardian up 2.4% period on period (PoP), ‘i’ up 2% and the Daily Telegraph – the most circulated paper in the market – up 0.7%.

Guardian and ‘i’ were also the only titles to record any year on year (YoY) growth, up 1.7% and 1.5%, respectively.

While the Financial Times and Independent reported losses, they were marginal, however the FT’s circulation declined by a much more impactful -15% YoY, dropping more than 41,000 copies.

The Times saw no change at all over the period.

Mid Market

The Daily Mail celebrated the sale of an extra 40,000 copies in January, however a -4.4% YoY hit saw the paper lose an average of 83,000 copies. Still, the title remains the second most circulated paper of all the dailies with a daily average of 1.78 million.

The Daily Express was down -0.3% PoP and -5.5% YoY, dropping its total average circulation to just over 500,000.

Popular Market

It was largely a good month for the popular market, with an 8.3% lift in circulation bagging the Sun – the most circulated daily paper – an extra 170,000 copies in January.

While the Daily Mirror was up 2.8% PoP (an extra 27,000 copies) and the Daily Record up 1.4% PoP (an extra 3,200 copies), the only paper in the popular market to record a decline in circulation in January was the Daily Star; however a small -0.5% decrease equated to a loss of just 2,660 copies.

Overall, the daily titles saw a 3.2% PoP increase in circulation and a -6.1% YoY decrease.

Sunday titles

All but three titles in the Sunday national newspaper market recorded increased circulation figures across the month, with the Sun on Sunday leading the charge with growth of 7.9% PoP.

Kicking 2014 off with largely good news, the entire market recorded growth of 2.7% PoP.

In the quality sector, only the Independent on Sunday saw a loss on December’s sales. The title was down just -0.9% PoP – less than a thousand copies – but saw a -11.4% YoY circulation decline.

However, up almost 8,000 copies, the Sunday Telegraph saw the strongest growth last month at 1.9% PoP. Again, the title was down year on year, but only by -1.3% (5,751 copies).

In the mid-market only the Sunday Express saw negative growth, down -0.6% for the period, shedding almost 2,700 copies.

However, the Mail on Sunday and the Sunday Post were both up – by 1% PoP and 1.6% PoP, respectively. This equated to more than 16,300 Mail on Sunday purchases and over 3,500 for the Sunday Post.

All three titles in the mid-market recorded year on year losses between 7.5% and 9.2%.

In the popular market the Sun on Sunday was the stand-out winner. Its 7.9% growth in January saw it sell an extra 131,800 copies – although, like every paper in the market, the title was down year on year.

The Daily Star Sunday was in second place, up 2.7% PoP, or a little over 8,000 copies, followed by the Sunday Mirror which flogged an extra 14,250 copies (up 1.5% PoP).

Overall, the Sunday market sold 181,810 more copies in January than in December.

London Free Press

Good news for the London Free Press too, reporting both a period and yearly increase in circulation – largely attributable to the London Evening Standard, which last month extended its print distribution to cover all 33 London boroughs for the first time.

Up 10.4% PoP, the Evening Standard added an extra 70,000 copies in January, and recorded year on year growth of 7.3%.

Metro (London) was also up PoP, with a small 0.6% increase bagging the paper an extra 4,600 copies.

City A.M.’s marginal -0.4% PoP decline had little impact on the overall figure, with the London Free Press up 4.7% in January and 2.2% YoY.