National Press Round-Up For June
The generally gloomy outlook for the national press is once again reinforced by the latest circulation and paginat- ion figures (June’91), with only a handful of titles showing a light at the end of the tunnel.
Quality Dailies Sundays: The June ’91 ABCs for the quality dailies paint a less than encouraging picture, with all the titles losing circulation year-on-year, as they did in May’91.
The Times continues its descent, down by 9.0% on June ’90. Once again, no figures are available for the FT due to a voucher promotion.
The picture for the Sundays is more promising, with the IoS increasing by 10.5% and The Observer by 5.0%. It is interesting to note that The Observer was the only quality title to gain circulation against May’91.
The six-monthly circulation figures for January to June’91 follow a similar pattern to the monthly ABCs.
The Observer stands out as the only title to record a substantial increase, up by 2.2% on January to
| %Ch/ | Jan- | %Ch/ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ‘000 | Jun’91 | Jun’90 | Jun’91 | J-J’90 |
| D.Tel | 1052 | -2.1 | 1075 | -1 |
| Guard. | 413 | -1.7 | 431 | 0.2 |
| Times | 392 | -9 | 406 | -6.1 |
| Indep. | 377 | -7.8 | 394 | -4.8 |
| Obsv. | 570 | 5 | 579 | 2.2 |
| S.Tel | 555 | -5.1 | 576 | -1.7 |
| S.Tms | 1138 | 0.3 | 1177 | -0.8 |
| IoS | 368 | 10.5 | 385 | n/a |
The June’91 average pagination figures, show that most of the quality titles have experienced a substantial fall in total pagination , against June ’90. Ave.Wkly Pagination June’91 vs June’90
| Dsply% | Clsfd% | Total Pages | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ’90 | ’91 | ’90 | ’91 | ’90 | ’91 | %Ch | |
| D.Tel | 21 | 22 | 14 | 10 | 286 | 258 | -10 |
| Guard. | 13 | 16 | 25 | 19 | 232 | 206 | -11 |
| W/e | 9 | 11 | 14 | 13 | 50 | 57 | 14 |
| Times | 19 | 20 | 12 | 11 | 287 | 235 | -18 |
| Tms Rev | – | 29 | – | 13 | – | 49 | n/a |
| Indep. | 20 | 22 | 7 | 6 | 226 | 215 | -5 |
| FT | 27 | 25 | 8 | 6 | 293 | 255 | -13 |
| Obsv. | 24 | 23 | 15 | 14 | 72 | 70 | -1 |
| S.Tel | 24 | 22 | 6 | 6 | 61 | 65 | -7 |
| S.Tms | 22 | 22 | 29 | 28 | 124 | 82 | -34 |
| Books | 22 | 16 | 0 | 12 | 16 | 32 | 100 |
| IoS Mai | n 30 | 33 | 0 | – | 28 | 30 | 7 |
| Bus | 22 | 18 | 12 | 8 | 33 | 25 | -24 |
| Rev | 18 | 27 | 3 | 4 | 68 | 74 | 9 |
The percentage of total pagination taken up with display advertising remained fairly stable for the quality titles, when compared with June’90.
However, the percentage taken up with classified advertising has fallen off sharply. The Guardian appears to be the worst hit, losing 6% year-on-year.
Mid-Market Dailies and Sundays Circulation for The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday continues to increase steadily year-on-year, up by 1.6% and 0.1% respectively on June’90. The other mid-market titles , when comparing June’91 with June’90, conform to the general downward slide.
Today continues to lose circulation rapidly , down 17% year – on – year. However, Today was the only mid-market title to gain circulation on May’91.
The picture for the six-monthly ABCs is more encouraging, with only The Sunday Express and Today losing circulation against January to June’90.
The increase for The Mail on Sunday and corresponding decrease for The Sunday Express widen the gap between the two newspapers. The MoS is moving back up towards the 2m mark it achieved in January.
| %Ch/ | Jan- | %Ch/ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ‘000 | Jun’91 | Jun’90 | Jun’91 | J-J’90 |
| D.Exp | 1560 | -3.2 | 1565 | 0.2 |
| D.Mail | 1702 | 1.6 | 1720 | 0.3 |
| S.Exp | 1638 | -4 | 1623 | -6 |
| MoS | 1892 | 0.1 | 1940 | 2.7 |
| Today | 474 | -17 | 490 | -15.7 |
| E.Stnd | 481 | -1 | 519 | 0.3 |
Pagination figures show that The Daily Mail and Daily Express have faired better during June than their Sunday counterparts. The proportion of display advertising increased for both mid-market dailies, as did the total pagination.
Ave.Wkly Pagination June’91 vs June’90
| Dsply% | Clsfd% | Total Pages | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ’90 | ’91 | ’90 | ’91 | ’90 | ’91 | %Ch | |
| D.Exp | 27 | 31 | 7 | 8 | 286 | 302 | 6 |
| D.Mail | 29 | 30 | 6 | 6 | 289 | 297 | 3 |
| S.Exp | 38 | 41 | 8 | 2 | 48 | 41 | -15 |
| S.Exp(2) | – | 36 | – | 13 | – | 32 | n/a |
| MoS | 41 | 38 | 9 | 8 | 96 | 96 | 0 |
| Today | 23 | 20 | 7 | 7 | 274 | 237 | -14 |
| E.Stnd | – | 23 | – | 20 | – | 297 | n/a |
As mwith the circulation figures, Today is the hardest hit of the mid-market newspapers, although it does manage to maintain its level of classified advertising.
The Sunday Express launched a tabloid lifestyle section on June 23, under the new editorship of Eve Pollard.
Sunday Express Part 2 appears to have attracted a substantial amount of advertising in its first two weeks. However, as yet it has done little to improve the title’s sliding circulation. Popular Dailies and Sundays The popular newspapers present the least encouraging picture of all the nationals.
All of the popular titles lost circulation year-on-year for June’91. The largest decrease was recorded by The Sunday Sport, down 14.5%, closely followed by the People, down 11.1%.
A similar pattern emerged for the six-monthly ABCs, with all titles falling against January to June’90.
Only The Sun and News Of The World gained circulation slightly on May’91, with all the other popular titles following the downward trend.
| %Ch/ | Jan- | %Ch/ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ‘000 | Jun’91 | Jun’90 | Jun’91 | J-J’90 |
| Mirr | 2912 | -8.2 | 2806 | -3.6 |
| Star | 855 | -7.6 | 879 | -4.4 |
| Sun | 3635 | -6.6 | 3693 | -6.2 |
| NoW | 4780 | -3.8 | 4808 | -4.5 |
| S.Mirr | 2772 | -5.5 | 2806 | -3.6 |
| People | 2278 | -11.1 | 2388 | -17.8 |
| S.Sprt | 365 | -14.5 | 371 | -9.7 |
June’s average pagination shows that the national popular newspapers collectively lost display advertising year-on-year. Classified advertising, the proportion of which is lower than for the mid-market and quality titles, remained stable.
Ave.Wkly Pagination June’91 vs June’90
| Dsply% | Clsfd% | Total Pages | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ’90 | ’91 | ’90 | ’91 | ’90 | ’91 | %Ch | |
| Mirr | 23 | 28 | 3 | 3 | 225 | 223 | -1 |
| Star | 27 | 26 | 4 | 4 | 224 | 226 | 1 |
| Sun | 28 | 24 | 4 | 4 | 223 | 243 | 9 |
| NoW | 36 | 29 | 4 | 5 | 49 | 50 | 2 |
| S.Mirr | 38 | 35 | 3 | 3 | 46 | 43 | -7 |
| People | 30 | 25 | 6 | 6 | 49 | 42 | -14 |
General The latest circulation and pagination figures for the national newspapers give no indication of a recovery in the market , instead they reinforce the downward trend.
During June, The Daily Telegraph redesigned its weekend section to give it a more coherent image. This is the latest in a series of moves by the quality newspapers to give Saturday editions their own identity.
As well as launching a new tabloid section, the Sunday Express redesigned its magazine. Other titles have recently announced future launches. The Mail on Sunday is to reintroduce Visage magazine and The Times is to launch a magazine to accompany the educational supplement.
These new launches and redesigns are unlikely to attract many new readers in the present climate. Possibly the best publishers can hope for is to maintain circulation, readership and advertising at its present level.
Sources: ABC Jun’91, ABC Jan-Jun’91 MEAL Pagination Jun’91