Feature: Broads Doing Best In National News Circulation

With a couple of exceptions, each month of 2001 saw a year on year decrease in the total circulation of national newspapers. One such exceptional month was September, when extraordinary events in the USA prompted an overall surge in sales. However, on average the market was down 275,000 each month in a year on year analysis.

So less newspapers are being sold, but are the losses being felt across the spectrum of titles? The answer is no. Analysis of last year’s figures show that the popular press, while still representing over half the total circulation of the market, is becoming less popular, while the broadsheets are building on their more modest circulations.

Tabloid editors going up against one another, the PCC or the libel courts may continue to generate publicity across the media world, but it seems that despite the public’s growing hunger for the celebrity news dominating tabloid pages, people are buying less of them. The gap between 2000 and 2001 circulation was widest for the tabloids at the start of the year, when total circulation was between 450,000 and 500,000 down year on year. This gap was narrowed after the first quarter, but not even the events of September 11 could give the red-tops a year on year increase.

The mid market showed a less emphatic pattern, with fortunes swinging from one extreme to the other. February saw a year on year drop of more than 235,000, while September saw an increase almost as large. What these figures don’t reveal is the clear split within the market between the Mail titles and Express titles. During 2001 the former titles generally saw a year on year increase in circulation, at the cost of the latter, whose circulations are less than half of their Mail counterparts’.

The broadsheets, then, are the circulation success story of the moment. Despite the argument that the public has been trained to seek dumbed-down sound bites and in the face of increasing competition from new media platforms, the total circulation of the broadsheet market increased year on year for most months of last year. The exceptional month was September, when circulation was up by almost 250,000 or 5.2% compared to the previous year.

The broadsheet market remains the smallest section of the national newspaper market, by circulation if not by number of titles, but at the moment it appears to be the strongest in growth terms.

Titles included in calculations for each market as used in our monthly ABC National Newspaper Round-Ups for subscribers

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