ABC National Newspaper Round-Up: November 2008

Daily Newspaper Market

The national daily newspaper market suffered an overall circulation fall of 4% year on year in November.

The only daily national titles in our analysis to report circulation growth were the Financial Times and Guardian, up 0.8% and 0.4% year on year respectively.

The Independent saw the largest fall of the national titles, down 13.8% year on year.

Quality Daily Titles

The Financial Times was up by 0.8% year on year in November, giving it a total circulation of almost 449,000 copies.

After a slight year on year upturn of 0.4%, the Guardian now has a circulation of just over 358,000 copies.

There was a large year on year decline for the Independent, down 13.8% to around 201,000 copies.

The Daily Telegraph‘s circulation now stands at just over 835,000 following a year on year fall of 5.4%.

The Times also suffered a year on year dip, of 2.4%, to leave its total at around 622,000 copies.

Mid-Market Daily Titles

The Daily Mail‘s circulation fell to just under 2.2 million copies in November, after a year on year fall of 5.7%, while the Daily Express fell 1.9% to 752,000 copies.

Popular Daily Titles

In the Popular sector, the Daily Mirror and Daily Record were both down by around 8% year on year.

The Daily Record now has a circulation of around 362,000 while the Daily Mirror‘s stands at around 1.4 million.

The Sun still has the largest circulation of any of the national dailies, at over three million, although it was down slightly year on year, by 1.1%.

Following a year on year downturn of 5.2%, the Daily Star now has a total circulation of around 714,000 copies.

Sunday Newspaper Market

The Sunday newspaper market was down by 5.2% year on year overall, with the Independent on Sunday and the Daily Star Sunday both suffering significantly large year on year declines once again.

Quality Sunday Titles

The Independent on Sunday experienced the largest decline overall in the Sunday market, down by more than 18% year on year, leaving it with a circulation of around 166,000 copies.

In November, the Sunday Telegraph and the Observer both dipped by a similar amount, falling 3.6% and 2.3% respectively.

The Sunday Telegraph lost over 23,000 copies, leaving it with a circulation of around 622,000 copies, while the Observer lost more than 10,000 copies, giving it a total circulation of just under 444,000 copies.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Times was the only title in the overall Sunday market to buck the downward trend as it witnessed a 0.8% year on year increase, gaining almost 9700 to take its circulation to over 1.2 million copies.

Mid-Market Sunday Titles

In the Sunday Mid-Market, the Mail on Sunday was down by almost 5% year on year, leaving its circulation at around 2.2 million copies.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Express saw a 2.4% year on year dip – a real term decline of around 16,700 copies – leaving it with a circulation of more than 670,000.

Popular Sunday Titles

The Popular sector saw a large percentage decline for the Daily Star Sunday, which lost nearly 75,000 copies – down 17.8% year on year – taking its circulation to around 347,000.

The People also suffered a relatively significant downturn in November, falling by almost 13% year on year to around 595,000 copies.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Mirror and the News of the World also experienced declines in the Sunday market, though both titles managed to retain healthy circulation figures.

The Sunday Mirror was down by 7.6% year on year to over 1.2 million copies, while despite falling by almost 4% year on year and losing more than 127,000 copies, the News of the World remains the overall top selling Sunday paper with a circulation of over 3.1 million.

ABC: 01442 870 800 www.abc.org.uk