ABCs: The Times up 10% year-on-year

Daily Market

Amid a sea of declines, The Times is continuing to do something right, with both its daily and Sunday editions managing to increase their circulations over the year, according to the latest ABC results for February.

Up almost 10% year-on-year (down -2.3% month-on-month), The Times’ weekday issue now sells 441,100 copies a day.

Metro (full UK footprint) also performed well with a near 10% year-on-year increase taking its total circulation to a little over 1.48m. It also recorded the smallest decrease between January and February (-0.1%).

The Sun was hit hardest compared with the previous month, down -4.5% (-74,700 copies), followed by the Daily Mail which was down -3.8% (-57,200). However, the two still remain the most popular paid-for national newspapers.

Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph was down -3.2% month-on-month – 15,000 fewer sales than in January – while the Financial Times was down -2.5% and the Guardian down -1.4%.

Sunday Market

Like the vast majority of daily titles, the Sunday newspaper market took a bit of a hammering in February.

Just one title – the Daily Star Sunday – recorded any growth between January and February, but that was marginal at 0.7% – or 1,900 copies.

Over the year, the Sunday Times, like its daily counterpart, once again managed to defy all current trends and record further growth. The title was up 3%, boosting its circulation by more than 23,000.

Elsewhere, however, it was series of declines, but nothing too shocking: the worst performing title was the Sunday Mirror, down -2.7% (17,100 copies), followed by the Sunday People (down -1.4%, or 3,500 copies), and the Sunday Mail, down -1.2% (2,000 copies).

The best-selling Sunday newspaper, Sun on Sunday, is still performing well with a circulation of 1.37m, while the second-best performing title, The Mail on Sunday, flogs 1.25m each week.

Overall, the Sunday market was down by just -0.8% between January and February, but was down -7.1% year-on-year.

London Free Press

The free press market remains buoyant, with a 17% increase to Metro (London’s) circulation helping the market increase its total yearly circulation by 6.7%.

With few changes to circulation over the month, the market was also up 0.5% period-on-period.

Between them, Metro, City A.M. and London Evening Standard manage to flog  more than 1.88 million copies every day.