ABC National Newspaper Round-Up: March 2009

Daily Newspaper Market

Overall, the daily newspaper market was down 3.6% year on year in March, although the Daily Star‘s circulation was up a very impressive 13.5%.

There was a big year on year drop for the Independent, down by around 16.5%, with other daily titles also recording falls.

Quality Daily Titles

The Independent suffered the largest decline in the Quality Daily market, shedding over 41,000 from its circulation year on year, leaving it with a total of around 205,000 copies.

Independent News & Media revealed in March that chief executive Sir Anthony O’Reilly would be stepping down on 7 May to be replaced by his son, Gavin O’Reilly (see Sir Anthony O’Reilly is set to leave INM).

The Daily Telegraph and Financial Times were each down by over 5%.

The Telegraph now has a total circulation of under 825,000 copies, while the Financial Times‘ rests at almost 432,000.

The Guardian fell by almost 5% year on year, to just under 341,000 copies, while the Times dipped 3.5% to around 600,000.

Mid-Market Daily Titles

In the Mid-Market, the Express was down just 0.8%, to leave its circulation at just under 726,000.

TheDaily Mail, lost almost 6.5% of its circulation year on year, although its total is still a very respectable 2.1 million copies.

Popular Daily Titles

The Sun remained the daily newspaper with the highest circulation, with a slight dip of around 1%, to three million copies.

However, the Daily Star was up by 13.5% year on year, to almost 820,000 copies.

The Daily Record‘s circulation now stands at around 358,000 copies following a decline of 8.6%, while the Daily Mirror was down by around 9.5% to 1.3 million.

Sunday Newspaper Market

March saw a 6.2%year on year fall in the Sunday newspaper market’s overall circulation.

The only Sunday title to an increase was the Sunday Times, while the Daily Star Sunday remained static over the same period.

There were large declines for both the Independent on Sunday, and the People

Quality Sunday Titles

The Independent on Sunday was hit hard in March, falling by 24.3% – or almost 54,000 copies – to leave its total circulation at around 168,000.

The Observer‘s circulation fell by around 6.5% year on year, to 431,000, while the Sunday Telegraph was down 4.1% to under 600,000.

Bucking the trend, however, was the Sunday Times, with an increase of almost 3% year on year, taking its total to 1.2 million.

Mid-Market Sunday Titles

Both Mid-Market Sundays were down by almost the same percentage, with the Mail on Sunday falling 7.5% to two million copies, while the Sunday Express dropped by around 7% to 636,000.

Popular Sunday Titles

The Daily Star Sunday was the best performer in this category, remaining static on 362,000 copies.

Not doing so well, the People was hit by an 11.8% drop in circulation over the year, leaving its total at just under 581,000 copies.

The News of the World shed around 200,000 copies from its total year on year – a 6.3% drop – leaving it with a circulation of three million.

The Sunday Mirror, meanwhile, now has a circulation of 1.2 million following a year on year downturn of around 8%.