ABCs: Times boosts yearly circulation by 43,000

The latest ABC results show the entire daily newspaper market was up 0.7% in October – a performance managed solely because freebie Metro managed to boost its UK-wide circulation by an impressive 10.3%.

The rest of the market rather struggled last month with most titles recording period-on-period declines.

The worst hit – after a healthy run since being acquired by Johnston Press – was the i, down almost 4%, dropping -11,420 copies. The title was up 1.4% year-on-year, however, making it one of only four titles to record any yearly growth.

Elsewhere, there’s certainly something interesting going on at The Times which was up once again year-on-year by an impressive 43,000 copies (+11%). The News UK title was down just -0.6% period-on-period.

The Guardian’s circulation remained flat in October, recording no change from September, while the Financial Times was up 0.3% (an extra 600 copies).

In the both the mid- and popular markets every title was down in October, although by nothing too severe. The worst hit was the Daily Star, down -2.9%, flogging 13,600 fewer copies.

Over the last year the entire daily market has declined by -2%.

Sunday Market

The quality market performed well in the month running up to the US election, with the Observer increasing sales by 3.3%. The paper also remained stable over the year.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Times was up 1.1% on the previous month and 2% year on year, while the Sunday Telegraph was up 0.2% period on period and 0.8% year on year.

The only other national newspaper to record a monthly increase in circulation was the Sunday Post (0.1%); however the mid-market title was down a huge -20.5% year-on-year – the biggest decline across all Sunday titles.

The worst declines in monthly circulation came in the popular market, with Daily Star Sunday taking a -3.7% hit and Sunday Mail down -2.1%.

The red-tops also took some hefty blows to yearly sales, with Sunday Mirror down -15% and both Sunday Mail and Sunday People down -12.7%.

The entire market was down -6% year-on-year and just 0.8% period-on-period.

Free press (London)

Metro (London) was up a huge 17.9% period-on-period and 17.4% year-on-year, helping the London free press market increase overall circulation by 8.4% compared with September.

The Evening Standard and City A.M. both remained fairly stable over the month; however, City A.M. has seen circulation dip -13.5% year-on-year.

Still, Metro’s stellar performance meant that the market was also up a healthy 6.7% year-on-year.