August saw no major changes or surprises within the national press market. Instead only a continuation of the general downward trend, experienced by virtually all newspapers in recent months.
Among the quality newspapers the Independent On Sunday once again stands out as the only title to be weathering the storm. Its ABC figure for August showed an increase of 12,000 on the previous month and an increase of 9.5% year on year.
All the other quality newspapers lost circulation against August 1990, The Times down 9.1%, the Independent down 8.2% and the Sunday Telegraph down 5.5%.
The ABCs for March ` August 1991 painted a similar pattern,with only the Independent on Sunday and the Observer recording increases.
| AUG’91 | ABCs | %Ch/ | Mar- | %Ch/ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ‘000 | Aug’91 | Aug’90 | Aug’91 | M-A’90 |
| D.Tel | 1065 | -1.4 | 1064 | -1.4 |
| FT | 279 | -2.1 | 287 | -1.4 |
| Guard | 397 | -1.7 | 418 | -1.2 |
| Times | 380 | -9.1 | 395 | -7.8 |
| Indpnt | 367 | -8.2 | 381 | -7.4 |
| Obsv | 537 | -2.5 | 559 | 2.2 |
| S.Tel | 579 | -5.5 | 572 | -2.2 |
| S.Times | 1111 | -1.7 | 1150 | -0.8 |
| IoS | 370 | 9.5 | 372 | 10.1 |
The Meal pagination figures for August offer little encouragement, with the majority of qualities losing display advertising year`on`year.
The Guardian faired better than most, increasing its proportion of display advertising by 2 percentage points on August ’90. The weekend Guardian increased its display advertising by 3 percentage points.
The proportion of classified advertising also fell year on year for most of the quality newspapers. Ave.Wkly Pagination Aug’91 vs Aug’90
| DsplY % | Clsfd % | Total Pages | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 90 | ’91 | ’90 | ’91 | ’90 | ’91 | %Ch | |
| D.Tel | 18 | 16 | 11 | 9 | 224 | 226 | 0.9 |
| FT | 16 | 14 | 5 | 4 | 199 | 196 | -1.5 |
| Guard | 10 | 12 | 17 | 13 | 204 | 188 | -7.8 |
| W/E Grd | 7 | 10 | 10 | 13 | 50 | 57 | 14 |
| Times | 11 | 13 | 12 | 10 | 223 | 213 | -4.5 |
| Tms Rev | – | 26 | – | l0 | – | 46 | n/a |
| Ind | 15 | 13 | 5 | 1 | 193 | 198 | 2.6 |
| Obsv. | 22 | 22 | 14 | 25 | 73 | 63 | `13.7 |
| S.Tel | 21 | 19 | 6 | 6 | 54 | 60 | 11.1 |
| S.Tms | 14 | 18 | 34 | 26 | 82 | 66 | -19.5 |
| Books | 17 | 13 | 19 | 8 | 14 | 31 | 121.4 |
| IoS Main | 27 | 27 | – | – | 29 | 28 | -3.4 |
| Bus | 14 | 13 | 8 | 18 | 25 | 30 | -20 |
| Rev | 17 | 19 | 5 | 5 | 59 | 48 | -18.6 |
The Daily Mail continues to be the only mid market newspaper to increase circulation year on year, up by just 0.2% on August 1990. At the other end of the scale, Today droped by 16.4% year on year to 465,000.
The Evening Standard suffered a loss of 8.0% against August 1990, proving that the title may have gone past its peak.
| %Ch/ | Mar- | %Ch/ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ‘000 | Aug’91 | Aug’90 | Aug’91 | M-A’90 |
| D.Exp | 1568 | -2.2 | 1562 | -1.1 |
| D.Mail | 1694 | 2.2 | 1711 | 1.8 |
| Today | 465 | -16.4 | 475 | -17.5 |
| Ev.Stnd | 462 | -8 | 450 | -2.3 |
| S.Exp | 1677 | -2.3 | 1639 | -3.9 |
| MoS | 1879 | -0.8 | 1904 | 0.7 |
The August pagination figures show that the Sunday Express Part 2 is continuing to atract new display advertising. The main section of the paper increased its proportion of display advertising by three percentage points year – on- year.
The other mid market newspapers remained relatively stable, with most titles altering their proportions of advertising by just one or two percentage points. Ave.Wkly Pagination Aug’91 vs Aug’90
| Dsply % | Clsfd % | Total Pages | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ’90 | ’91 | ’90 | ’91 | ’90 | ’91 | %Ch | |
| D.Exp | 29 | 30 | 7 | 7 | 250 | 270 | 8 |
| D.Mail | 27 | 27 | 5 | 6 | 260 | 282 | 8.5 |
| Today | 21 | 21 | 6 | 5 | 243 | 237 | -2.5 |
| Ev.Stnd | – | 18 | – | 20 | – | 258 | n/a |
| S.Exp | 36 | 39 | 8 | 1 | 38 | 31 | -18.4 |
| Part 2 | – | 30 | – | 13 | – | 32 | n/a |
| MoS | 38 | 35 | 10 | 8 | 75 | 85 | 13.3 |
The popular newspapers continued to lose circulation year on year, although fairing slightly better than last month. The Sunday Sport and the People have once again suffered most; the People fell 10.9% and the Sunday Sport fell 12.4% against August last year.
The six monthly circulation figures for March-August 1991 reinforce the picture painted by the monthly figures. August 1991 ABC’s
| %Ch/ | Mar- | %Ch/ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ‘000 | Aug’91 | Aug’90 | Aug’91 | M-A’90 |
| Mirr | 2889 | -7.4 | 2923 | -6.9 |
| Star | 860 | -7.2 | 868 | -6.4 |
| Sun | 3747 | -3.5 | 3686 | -5.6 |
| NoW | 4881 | -3.3 | 4809 | -4 |
| S.Mirr | 2750 | -5.6 | 2799 | -4.4 |
| S.Sprt | 373 | -12.4 | 373 | -10.5 |
| People | 2266 | -10.9 | 2291 | -13.8 |
The News of the World and Sunday Mirror were the only popular newspapers not to drop display advertising on the previous year. All the others decreased their proportion of display advertising by at least 2 percentage points, notably the People, down by 5 percentage points.
Classified advertising for the popular titles also suffered, but not to the same extent. Ave.Wkly Pagination AUG’91 vs AUG’90
| Dsply % | Clsfd % | Total Pages | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ’90 | ’91 | ’90 | ’91 | ’90 | ’91 | %Ch | |
| Mirr | 28 | 24 | 3 | 3 | 203 | 216 | 6.4 |
| Star | 26 | 24 | 4 | 5 | 212 | 217 | 2.4 |
| Sun | 26 | 22 | 4 | 3 | 202 | 241 | 19.3 |
| NoW | 30 | 32 | 3 | 3 | 47 | 51 | 8.5 |
| S.Mirr | 32 | 33 | 2 | 3 | 43 | 42 | -2.3 |
| People | 28 | 23 | 5 | 5 | 42 | 41 | -2.4 |
Several national newspapers have recently announced cover price increases, with others expected to follow shortly. For The Sunday Times this was the second increase so far this year.
These measures are an attempt to compensate for falling revenues and sales. Other news included the Evening Standard pushing its advertorial facilities and the Sunday Times announcing a new section given over purely to classified advertising.
Newspaper Publishing secured a refinancing package with its European shareholders, at the same time as revealing a pay freeze for all staff. The latest EBRS survey, the ninth in the series, has now been released, covering a universe of 273,201 senior business people in 36,604 establish- ments in seventeen European countries.
The 1991 survey puts the Financial Times in pole position, with an AIR of 19%, 1% point down on the previous survey (1989). The FT was followed by Germany’s daily,Frankfurter Allgemeine, with an AIR of 14% (down 2% points). Germany’s Handelsblatt recorded an AIR of 13%, whilst The Times scored 7%, and the Wall Street Journal and Inter- national Herald and Tribune both scored 4%. Amongst the weeklies, The Economist took second place to Der Spiegel (AIRs of 13% and 14% respectively). The European scored 3%.
