Feature: Broadsheets Buck The Trend Of Falling Circulations

Over the last ten years total national newspaper sales have fallen by around 8%, according to trends from the ABC. The bulk of this decline has come from the popular tabloid papers (see previous Media Track), which have seen combined circulation fall by 21% from 17.6 million to 13.9 million. The mid-market sector – the two Mail and Express titles – has held stable with the Mail’s gains offsetting the Express’ decline. It is the broadsheets, though, that have grown the overall national press circulation.

Over the decade, weekly and Sunday broadsheet sales have increased by around 7.5%. The growth, though, has not been uniform across all the titles in the sector. The Financial Times and Times have gone from strength to strength, whilst the two Independent titles have been ailing for some time. The FT has seen sales rise by 57% since 1990. The Independent has seen circulation fall 35% from 414,000 to 214,000 in the January-June 2000 audit. Despite improving sales for the broadsheet sector overall, NRS figures show that actual readership has fallen 7.8%, or around a million readers, over the same period. Only the Times and Sunday Telegraph managed to improve both circulation and readership over the decade.

ACNielsen MMS figures compiled by CIA MediaLab show that sales success has been transferred into advertising revenue for the FT, with the title taking £254 million in the year to August 2000 – more than any other broadsheet title and a year on year growth of 32%. The Daily Telegraph, which has quietly held its circulation steady for over ten years at just of one million copies, took second place in the revenue table with £214 million worth of sales. All the broadsheets saw double digit revenue growth across the period bar the Independent, up just 3%. The top ten brands using the broadsheets is now dominated by computer dealers and internet services, with the computer sector spending £183 million in the year to August.

The CIA MediaLab analysis also shows that half of ad revenue goes to the weekend papers – 26% to Sundays, 23% to Saturdays; the rest is fairly evenly distributed across the remainder of the week. Across the decade circulation of the Sunday Telegraph and Sunday Times has been growing (revenues up 20% and 28% and circulation up 38% and 15% respectively). The Independent On Sunday and Observer, on the other have both seen sales decline (revenues up 13% and 10% and circulations down 30% and 27% respectively).