National Press Round-Up – June
Qualities
News International’s latest cover price promotion for the Times appears to have had a positive effect on the newspaper’s circulation, with the June ABC figure up by 7% to 724,839. The Times’ cover price has been reduced from 30p to 10p every Monday since June 3, as part of the newspapers’ summer sport promotion. Initially ABC announced that they were not going to include sales for the Monday issues in the audited circulation for June but a mutual agreement was reached between ABC and News International for incorporating the sales into the published figure.
The Daily Telegraph and Independent also ran promotions in June. The Independent launched ‘Summer of Sport’, a twelve-page broadsheet section that will run throughout the summer. It also ran vouchers offering readers the Monday and Wednesday editions for 10p, down from the normal 40p cover price. While these promotions did not produce a circulation upturn for the newspaper, they may have slowed up its decline. The June ABC was down by just 0.1% on May to 272,928. The Daily Telegraph, which offered a weeks subscription to both the daily and Sunday newspapers for £1, increased its circulation by 6,600 to 1,054,314.
The quality Sundays followed a similar pattern to the dailies in June with the Sunday Times and Sunday Telegraph both recording increases on May and the Observer and Independent on Sunday recording decreases.
The twice yearly UK, Eire and overseas breakdowns were released in June showing that the Financial Times has by far the highest percentage of overseas sales (42%). The Guardian has the next highest with 7% of its circulation going overseas.
ABC Breakdown – Jan-Jun’96
| UK | O/C | Eire | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daily Express | 1,220,787 | 20,061 | 3,901 | 1,244,749 |
| Daily Mail | 2,025,919 | 27,840 | 3,834 | 2,057,593 |
| Daily Mirror | 2,387,208 | 26,994 | 60,334 | 2,474,536 |
| Daily Star | 664,225 | 5,291 | 85,973 | 755,489 |
| Daily Telegraph | 1,010,882 | 26,309 | 6,486 | 1,043,677 |
| Evening Standard | 452,891 | 30 | 452,921 | |
| Financial Times | 172,039 | 126,819 | 3,103 | 301,961 |
| Guardian | 366,495 | 29,210 | 2,352 | 398,057 |
| Independent | 262,443 | 12,608 | 4,422 | 279,473 |
| Independent on Sunday | 275,038 | 15,310 | 13,453 | 303,801 |
| Mail on Sunday | 2,070,395 | 28,801 | 9,102 | 2,108,298 |
| News of the World | 4,403,131 | 46,500 | 158,168 | 4,607,799 |
| Observer | 416,216 | 27,433 | 9,766 | 453,415 |
| People | 1,927,486 | 22,005 | 99,815 | 2,049,306 |
| Sun | 3,944,289 | 37,559 | 66,967 | 4,048,815 |
| Sunday Express | 1,224,797 | 22,871 | 11,378 | 1,259,046 |
| Sunday Mirror | 2,320,586 | 33,015 | 72,830 | 2,426,431 |
| Sunday Sport | 260,650 | 260,650 | ||
| Sunday Telegraph | 636,586 | 22,527 | 7,825 | 666,938 |
| Sunday Times | 1,170,085 | 56,012 | 72,901 | 1,298,998 |
| Times | 648,977 | 30,363 | 5,265 | 684,605 |
Mid Markets
Both the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday recorded losses for the first time since March and as a result the mid market group showed a marked drop in circulation against May. The combined circulation for the dailies was down by 2.1% to 3,677,667 and the figure for the Sundays was down by 3.2% to 3,247,493.
ABC Trends
| Jan’96 | Feb’96 | Mar’96 | Apr’96 | May’96 | Jun’96 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daily Telegraph | 1,053,146 | 1,027,882 | 1,042,647 | 1,033,566 | 1,047,652 | 1,054,314 |
| Financial Times | 295,112 | 308,556 | 308,914 | 292,296 | 302,266 | 300,889 |
| Guardian | 408,186 | 402,214 | 400,245 | 394,000 | 395,446 | 391,062 |
| Independent | 292,049 | 285,809 | 280,396 | 276,029 | 273,236 | 272,928 |
| Times | 687,992 | 688,205 | 669,366 | 654,213 | 676,422 | 724,839 |
| Quality Dailies Total | 2,736,485 | 2,712,666 | 2,701,568 | 2,650,104 | 2,695,022 | 2,744,032 |
| Independent on Sunday | 309,114 | 312,066 | 305,764 | 301,564 | 298,927 | 294,923 |
| Observer | 449,529 | 461,367 | 458,815 | 457,775 | 454,385 | 443,348 |
| Sunday Telegraph | 678,952 | 658,455 | 658,892 | 651,462 | 666,971 | 683,819 |
| Sunday Times | 1,296,236 | 1,314,337 | 1,306,518 | 1,291,386 | 1,274,641 | 1,296,678 |
| Quality Sundays Total | 2,733,831 | 2,746,225 | 2,729,989 | 2,702,187 | 2,694,924 | 2,718,768 |
| Daily Express | 1,265,967 | 1,265,016 | 1,255,293 | 1,243,017 | 1,229,679 | 1,219,591 |
| Daily Mail | 2,065,985 | 2,039,713 | 2,055,775 | 2,061,803 | 2,089,988 | 2,038,039 |
| Evening Standard | 479,127 | 463,299 | 473,739 | 449,613 | 438,146 | 420,037 |
| Mid Market Dailies Total | 3,811,079 | 3,768,028 | 3,784,807 | 3,754,433 | 3,757,813 | 3,677,667 |
| Mail on Sunday | 2,134,945 | 2,138,465 | 2,112,016 | 2,118,799 | 2,127,522 | 2,045,139 |
| Sunday Express | 1,286,783 | 1,279,984 | 1,280,567 | 1,253,933 | 1,228,949 | 1,202,354 |
| Mid Market Sundays Total | 3,421,728 | 3,418,449 | 3,392,583 | 3,372,732 | 3,356,471 | 3,247,493 |
| Daily Mirror | 2,560,052 | 2,514,427 | 2,480,231 | 2,461,708 | 2,453,927 | 2,408,455 |
| Daily Star | 773,217 | 759,885 | 748,773 | 741,946 | 766,387 | 750,465 |
| Sun | 4,128,485 | 4,073,601 | 4,101,117 | 4,023,127 | 4,009,023 | 3,970,155 |
| Popular Dailies Total | 7,461,754 | 7,347,913 | 7,330,121 | 7,226,781 | 7,229,337 | 7,129,075 |
| News of the World | 4,717,756 | 4,656,716 | 4,561,607 | 4,546,298 | 4,562,655 | 4,585,807 |
| People | 2,094,805 | 2,029,115 | 2,031,339 | 2,066,809 | 2,057,131 | 2,036,302 |
| Sunday Mirror | 2,516,113 | 2,423,032 | 2,401,109 | 2,402,663 | 2,410,125 | 2,412,005 |
| Sunday Sport | 268,015 | 265,205 | 261,739 | 259,375 | 261,902 | 251,515 |
| Popular Sundays Total | 9,596,689 | 9,374,068 | 9,255,794 | 9,275,145 | 9,291,813 | 9,285,629 |
Populars
The only popular newspapers to record circulation increases in June were the News of the World and the Sunday Mirror. All the dailies lost circulation including the Sun which dropped below the four million mark for the first time this year.
The Daily Mirror and Daily Star both caused controversy in June with their coverage of the Euro’96 match between Germany and England. Their coverage was widely criticised and the issue of press regulation was raised again.
General
The Sunday newspaper market gained an extra title for just one week in June. The environmental Planet on Sunday launched on June 16 but was closed just a few days later by publisher Clifford Hards. Hards said that the newspaper’s content had failed to meet his expectations and therefore he was withdrawing his support.
The Sunday Business, the other newcomer to the market, has two months to secure new financial backers or face ruin. The newspaper is optimistic that it will shortly become a member of ABC and release audited circulation figures alongside the other national newspapers. Sales are currently rumoured to be around 40,000 per issue.
Market Share 