National newspaper ABCs: A strong month for The Times

Although newsbrands are doing well online, the picture for print remains bleak for the majority of titles, according to the latest ABC data.

Almost every daily newspaper recorded a circulation decline in November, with only a handful of increases.

The good news first: The Times was up +3.4% last month, boosting its circulation by more than 13,000 copies. To prove this was no blip, the News UK owned title was also up almost +5% year-on-year, adding 18,400 to its circulation.

The title now has a total circulation of 407,000.

The Daily Star was also up last month and over the last year, +4.2% and +2.7%, respectively. In November the red top shifted an extra 18,000 copies over the previous month, taking its total circulation to 450,000.

Also up in November – but down over the year – was The Daily Telegraph with a 1.2% circulation increase over October – amounting to an extra 6,000 copies.

While the majority of Sunday titles had a fairly quiet month compared with October, in a noteworthy turn of events the entire quality market was up over the month, although marginally, with the Sunday Times recording the highest circulation increase at 1.5% (11,800 copies).

While Daily Star Sunday recorded the highest overall boost in sales of all the Sunday papers, up 6.7%, Sunday Post’s circulation dropped by almost -10% (17,700 copies) and Sunday Mirror was down -5% (39,100 copies).

Meanwhile, the London free press was up 1.6% compared with the previous month, helped by a small 3.4% increase in circulation for the Evening Standard.