ABC: Only London Evening Standard sees yearly growth

Following an increase in its print run earlier this year, the London Evening Standard is the only title to record any yearly growth in circulation, according to March’s ABC figures.

Daily titles

In the quality market, only the Times and Financial Times recorded any period growth, up 3.2% PoP and 2.7% PoP, respectively, however the Financial Times was down a significant -15.6% year on year, dropping almost 43,000 copies overall.

A -2.4% PoP decline in circulation meant that the ‘i’ recorded a circulation of just under 293,000, compared with over 300,000 for February, while the Independent lost just 372 copies on the previous month.

Both the Daily Mail and Daily Express were down in the mid market, with the Daily Mail dropping 19,000 copies over the month and 114,000 copies over the year.

A 1% increase in circulation meant that the Sun added almost 21,000 copies in March, however a -9.2% YoY decline lost the paper almost 210,000 copies over the year.

The Daily Mirror was the only other title in the popular market to see an increase, up 1.2% PoP to add 11,600 copies. However, like the majority of titles, the paper was down YoY, losing almost 69,500.

Overall the daily titles saw no PoP change but were down -7.4% YoY.

London Free Press

PoP and YoY increases in circulation for the Evening Standard meant that the entire sector was up 4.8% PoP and 11.2% YoY overall, despite both City A.M. and Metro (London) recording losses.

Sunday titles

In the quality market, a 1.6% PoP increase saw the Sunday Times add over 13,100 copies to its March circulation, however the paper lost almost 46,000 over the year.

All other titles in the quality market were down both PoP and YoY.

No titles in the Sunday mid market reported any growth at all. Down -1.9% PoP, the Mail on Sunday dropped 30,300 copies, while the Sunday Express was down -2% PoP to lose 8,700 and the Sunday Post down -3.3% to lose 7,100.

A similar picture for the popular market, with all titles reporting losses both across the month and across the year.

The biggest period loss belonged to the Daily Star Sunday, down -3% PoP and 9,000 copies, while largest yearly loss belonged to the Sunday Mail, which was down -14.6% YoY and 42,600 copies.

Overall the sector was down -1.1% PoP and -9.4% YoY.