National newspaper ABCs: Brexit boosts most titles

Daily market

The impact of voting to leave the EU might have seen share prices fall for some publishers, but newspaper sales certainly received a boost – at least in the short-term.

Almost all of the daily market was up in June 2016, no doubt also bolstered by the Euro 2016, with the quality market leading the charge.

Up 3.6%, the Guardian added an extra 6,000 copies to its circulation in June, followed by the i which was up 3% and The Times, up 2.5%.

The Times was also up an impressive 15.3% year on year, finishing June with an average circulation of almost 450,000.

Brexit-campaigning The Sun saw sales increase 2.2% compared with the previous month, flogging a little under 1.8 million copies. It remains the best-performing national newspaper, followed closely by the Daily Mail.

Meanwhile, the Daily Record was down -2.8% over the month, alongside the Daily Mirror (-1%).

The Metro’s national footprint was up +0.17% to almost 1.35m copies.

Overall the market was up 0.8% over the month and down -1.1% over the year.

London Free Press

Small gains across London’s free titles resulted in a small 0.5% market uplift in June.

A 0.8% increase in circulation netted London Evening Standard an extra 7,000 copies, while a 0.2% lift increased Metro by 1,400.

Meanwhile, City A.M. circulation was up 0.4% – an extra 400 copies.

Sunday market

Many Sunday titles reaped huge rewards in the run up to the EU referendum and throughout the Euro 2016 tournament.

In the quality market, the Observer was up 8.4% (an additional 16,000 copies), while the Sunday Times was up 3.7% (28,500) and the Sunday Telegraph up 3.2% (almost 12,000).

Every title in the quality market was also up year on year – suggesting there is still life in print yet, and that major events provide the perfect opportunity to boost sales.

The picture was not as joyous in the mid market, however, with the Mail on Sunday up only 0.7%, the Sunday Express up 2.7% and the Sunday Post down -2.1%.

However, the popular market, in the main, performed better than usual.

The clear winner was the Daily Star Sunday, which flogged an extra 15,800 copies in June (an uplift of almost 5%).

The Sun on Sunday was up 2% (28,600 copies) and the Sunday People up 1.1% (just under 3,000).

Only the Sunday Mail and the Sunday Mirror recorded declines, and failed to capitalise on the public’s mood for EU-based journalism.

Overall, the Sunday market was up 1.6% in June, but was down -2.4% year on year.

Note: this article was updated on Thursday 21 July. The original incorrectly stated that Metro was down nationally by -0.1%. It was, in fact, up +0.17%, rounded in the charts to +0.2%.