National newspaper ABCs: the first signs of a slowdown in declines?

Daily market

Last month Newsline reported on a strange occurrence in the daily quality market: a bout of month on month circulation increases.

The news even prompted some commentators to ask if this was the plateau the market had been hoping for. Although it is too soon to tell – and the death of the Independent would certainly have made an impact – April witnessed a repeat performance, with all titles except the Financial Times securing solid growth figures.

The i, now in the hands of Johnston Press and with a wider geographic reach, was up 5.3%, adding more than 14,000 to its circulation. The title was also up 3.1% year on year.

Good news for The Times too, adding an extra 16,000 copies last month – and almost 43,000 copies on the same period last year.

The Daily Telegraph and the Guardian were also up month on month, 3.5% and 2.9%, respectively.

Only the FT took a hit – down -3.4%, dropping almost 7,000 copies.

In the mid-market, the Daily Express was up 1%, adding 4,300 copies, while rival the Daily Mail was down almost 2% (30,600 copies).

The good news continued, although to a lesser degree, in the popular market where the Daily Star recorded a 5.7% boost to April’s circulation figure – an increase of almost 27,600.

The Daily Mirror was up 0.2%, while there was no change for the Daily Record.

Only the Sun recorded a month on month decline – down -1.3% (22,800 less copies than March).

The full Metro footprint was static at +0.1%.

Overall, the the daily newspaper market was up 0.3%, month on month and down -2.8% year on year.

Free press, London market

There was little change in the London free market, with small increases to The Evening Standard and Metro circulations managing to offset the much steeper decline recorded by City A.M.

The financial freesheet was down -11.2% year on year, dropping 12,200 copies.

Overall, the market was down just 0.2% both over the period and the year.

Sunday market

Reporting for the first time without the Independent on Sunday, the quality market had an even stronger month of sales in April – with the Observer up 5.3% to shift 194,000 copies – no doubt securing some Indy readers.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Times was up 3.4% compared with the previous month to flog an extra 26,100 copies, while a 3% increase boosted Sunday Telegraph sales by 11,000.

Yearly declines in the quality market also appear to be slowing, with the Observer down -1.2%, Sunday Times down -1.4% and Sunday Telegraph down just -0.1%.

The only other title to see a significant uplift in circulation over the month was the Daily Star Sunday in the popular market, which was up 6% – an extra 18,000 copies. The title was also up a massive 24.4% over the year – the biggest yearly increase after the Sunday People, which reported an impressive 26.1% lift in sales.

All other popular titles were down month on month, with the Sunday Mail and Sunday Mirror taking even bigger hits over the year – down -13.4% and -14.8%, respectively.

Mid-market title the Sunday Post also reported a notable decrease in yearly circulation, down -13.3%; however, it was down just -2.1% compared with the previous month.

Meanwhile, Mail on Sunday was up 0.4% month on month but down -5% over the year.

Overall the Sunday market was up by 0.8% month on month and down -3.5% year on year.