ABC National newspapers – April 2014

Daily titles

Only four daily titles managed to record any growth in the latest ABC results showing circulation figures for the national newspapers.

However, amongst the four titles, growth was very slight with The Sun recording the highest growth at just 1% between March and April, accounting for an extra 22,000 copies.

The Times secured growth of 0.8%, selling an extra 3,265 editions, whilst remaining largely flat over the year with only a -0.5% change. In total, the paper sold a little under 400,000 copies each day, on average, throughout April.

The Daily Mail secured a 0.8% growth in circulation in April – amounting to 13,583 copies – whilst dropping -4.5% over the year.

Meanwhile, The Daily Mirror, following a monthly trend, was also up 0.8% – an extra 7,481 copies – but was down -6.9% over the year, dropping 71,947 copies. On average the paper had a daily circulation of 970,151 throughout April.

Of the papers that recorded negative growth, The Financial Times was worst hit. Down -2.7% (6,220 copies) in April, the broadsheet was also down -15.7% over the year, a drop of 41,919 copies.

The ‘i’, which has enjoyed some growth success recently, was also down, declining by -1.9% (5,595 copies), and recorded a -5.6% drop over the year (17,000 copies).

Overall, the entire daily market was up just 0.3% compared to March and down -7.1% on the same period last year.

London Free Press

Once again the London Evening Standard was the only title in the Free Press to record any period growth – though less than March’s 7.9% increase – up 0.5% period on period (PoP) to add an extra 4,600 copies to its circulation.

Even more impressively, since extending its reach into Zone 6, the title’s yearly circulation was up 28%, adding an extra 196,000 copies to secure almost 898,000 overall.

City A.M. was down -0.2% PoP (275 copies), while Metro (London) was down -0.8% PoP (6,405 copies).

Overall, the London Free Press market was down 0.1% PoP, but up a healthy 10.5% YoY.

Sunday titles

In the quality market, the Independent on Sunday was the only title to see an increase in circulation in April, up 1% PoP to add an extra 1,000 copies, however it was down -11.1% YoY, losing over 12,700 copies.

A -1% PoP decline lost the Sunday Times almost 8,700 copies in April, while a -5.9% YoY drop losing the paper a huge 52,000 copies over the year.

In the mid market, both the Mail on Sunday and Sunday Express recorded increases in circulation – though marginal – up 0.7% (10,751 copies) and 1.1% (4,584 copies), respectively.

Despite the small period gain, the Mail on Sunday lost over 131,000 copies over the year, but still managed to secure almost 1.57 million overall.

The popular market saw the Sun on Sunday add an extra 34,200 copies in April (up 2% PoP), however a -9.7% YoY decrease lost the title close to 185,000 copies.

Despite significant yearly losses, the Sun on Sunday remains the most-circulated paper of all the Sunday titles (1.72 million).

All other monthly gains and losses in the popular market were marginal.

Overall, the Sunday titles were up 0.3% PoP, but down -8.8% YoY.