February ABCs: a steadier month

After new year cover price increases saw circulations declining in Jan, it seems February is showing some small signs of recovery. The entire market was up 0.1% PoP with some titles showing gains across the month.

Here are the key points to take away from the data:

1. A handful of dailies managed to secure gains with the Financial Times and the Daily Mail faring the best period-on-period (PoP)

Although all newsbrands saw a dip in circulations YoY, the Financial Times and the Daily Mail recorded small period on period increases of 1.8% and 0.5%, respectively. The Daily Record, and Daily Express also followed suit with PoP rises.

2. The Sunday market was down overall with the exception of The Sunday People

Overall, the Sunday market was down by -0.9% PoP, while the Sunday People recorded a growth of 0.4% PoP, circulating 515 extra copies.

3. February saw a rise for the London free press

Elsewhere, the London freebie market rose by 2.9% PoP, with the London Evening Standard up on Jan by 0.3% (1,321 copies) and the Metro (London) up 6.9% (22,066 copies).

The Metro (UK footprint – Mon-Fri) also saw its circulation rise period-on-period (PoP) by 1,992 copies, or 0.3%, suggesting that more people are heading back to the office across the country.

It should be noted that circulation figures for the Sun, Sun on Sunday, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph, Times and Sunday Times have not been publicly reported by ABC, following the implementation of new reporting options which allow publishers to opt out of making their figures publicly available.

A complete breakdown of the circulation figures for each newsbrand can be found by Mediatel Connected subscribers in the tables below.