ABC National Newspaper Round-Up – May 2002

The latest figures from ABC reveal that month on month, overall circulation of national newspapers fell during May by 0.7%. The worst loss in percentage terms was at Sport First, which dropped 10,000 or 15.9% from its total month on month. Among the larger selling titles, the Mail on Sunday had a difficult month, dropping 5.1% or over 124,000 from its circulation total, to 2.3m.

Meanwhile, the Mail titles’ mid market rival the Daily Express had a better time, seeing a month on month increase of 31,000 or 3.5%, bringing its total average circulation for the month to 939,000. Also doing well in a month on month analysis was the Business, which managed a 4.7% increase to 93,652.

Quality Market

In a year on year analysis of the six month period from December 2001 to May 2002, the quality market has stayed fairly stable in circulation, with only a fractional upward move.

Within that figure, it appears that the Independent’s recent revamp is yet to reap rewards, as circulation for the daily title rose only 0.3% year on year over the period, while the Independent on Sunday saw a 7.3% decrease in circulation, falling 182,000 to just over 230,000.

The heaviest falls in this category, in actual numbers terms, were seen at the Sunday Telegraph which shed over 20,000 from its total, some 2.5%. Still, it remains the second best selling Sunday broadsheet by some margin.

Better news was seen at the Business, which has executed something of a turnaround with its new year relaunch. Circulation was up over 45% year on year, representing an extra 25,241 copies and bringing its circulation figure to more than 80,000. The Sunday Times also did well, adding 1.6% year on year or 21,786 copies.

Mid Market

Among the mid market titles, there was a change to the usual pattern of Express titles going down in circulation while Mail titles were going up. Instead, the whole sector suffered a year on year drop in circulation of 2.1% or almost 140,000 overall.

The Daily Mail barely managed to stay at the same 2.4m mark it was at last year, but sister title the Mail on Sunday sustained a 0.9% drop, representing a reduction in circulation of 20,000. Meanwhile, at the Daily Express circulation fell 4.9% and at the Sunday Express 7.7%, or over 70,000.

Popular Market

The popular market saw a 2.1% drop in circulation year on year for the December to May period. This represented a fall of almost 300,000.

The worst fall in percentage terms was at Sport First, whose circulation was down 17.8%, but fellow sports tabloid the Racing Post was, conversely, one of the better performers, adding 10.2%.

The Daily Star continues to look strong, with a 13.2% year on year increase, equating to almost 75,000, taking its circulation to 640,637. Meanwhile daily market leader the Sun saw another heavy fall, of 2.8% or 97,000, but maintains a comfortable lead on nearest rival the Mirror with a circulation of 3.4m.

NB. From March 02 onwards ABC only record a ‘UK Excluding Scotland’ and ‘Scotland’ figure. Any UK figure shown from March 02 onwards has therefore been calculated in-house in order to allow period on period comparisons to be made. The calculation used is as follows: ‘Total’ minus ‘ROI’ and ‘Other Countries’.

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