ABC National Newspaper Round-Up: June 2010

Daily Newspaper Market

June was a pretty poor month for the daily national newspaper market according to the latest ABC figures, as it recorded an overall decline of 6.5% year on year.

While none of the titles in our analysis managed to record a year on year increase in circulation, four of them fared better when looking at month on month changes.

Quality Daily Titles

In the Quality sector, there were big year on year declines for the Guardian and Times, both down by almost 15%, to around 286,000 and 504,000 respectively.

However, the Daily Telegraph suffered the largest year on year circulation fall, down 18.4% to around 681,000 copies.

Business broadsheet the Financial Times shed around 5% of its circulation year on year, leaving it at 392,000, while the Independent was down 6.6% to 187,000.

Mid-Market Daily Titles

While the Daily Express might have fallen 8.9% year on year, it was, like fellow Mid Market title the Daily Mail, relatively static year on year, at 664,000 copies.

The Mail‘s circulation now stands at 2.1 million copies, although it too was down year on year, by 4.9%.

Popular Daily Titles

And with the arrival of the sun (and the World Cup) in June, perhaps it was apt that the best performing title turned out to be the Sun, which posted a 1.5% month on month rise, giving it a total circulation of just under 3 million, despite a 1.6% year on year fall.

The Daily Mirror also put in a decent month on month showing, with 0.9% growth taking its total to more than 1.2 million. It was down 6.1% year on year.

The Daily Record and Daily Star had strikingly similar records, with year on year declines of 6.9%, while month on month, both titles were down 1.6%.

The Daily Record now has a circulation of 329,000, while the Star‘s stands at 810,000.

Sunday Newspaper Market

Overall, the Sunday newspaper market was down 9% year on year, although it performed slightly better month on month, with a 1.2% decline.

The ‘best’ performing title was perhaps the Sunday Mirror, which managed to keep its circulation static month on month.

Quality Sunday Titles

The Observer had a very tough time of it, losing 20% of its circulation year on year, leaving its total at under 327,000 copies, while the Sunday Telegraph was down 17.4% to under 509,000.

The Sunday Times, meanwhile, shed 10.3% of its total, leaving it hovering just under the 1.1 million mark.

The Independent on Sunday did comparatively well, down just 3.3% on June 2009, with a circulation of 157,000 copies.

Mid-Market Sunday Titles

Looking at the Mid Market, the Mail on Sunday was down 7.3% year on year to a still very respectable 1.9 million, while the Sunday Express dipped 11.4% to around 567,000.

Popular Sunday Titles

Down 7.7% year on year but static month on month, the Sunday Mirror now has a circulation of 1.1 million.

Despite a 6.3% year on year fall, the top selling Sunday is still the News of the World, with a total of 2.8 million copies.

There was a big year on year drop for the People, down 11.5% to 519,000 copies, while the Daily Star Sunday saw its total fall 8.8% to 352,000.