National Press Round-Up – March
Quality Market It was a disappointing period for the broadsheets, with sales dropping 0.6% year on year to 5.77 million. The Independent and Observer suffered the most, with falls of 9.9% and 8.7% respectively, while the Independent On Sunday slipped 2.5% to 272,101.
Quality Market Oct-Mar ’98 ABC Comparisons
| Title | Oct 96 – Mar 97 | Oct 97 – Mar 98 | Actual Change | % Change |
| Daily Telegraph | 1,117,281 | 1,084,446 | -32,835 | -2.9 |
| Financial Times | 303,621 | 342,570 | 38,949 | 12.8 |
| Guardian | 402,839 | 403,192 | 353 | 0.1 |
| Independent | 259,661 | 234,043 | -25,618 | -9.9 |
| Independent On Sunday | 279,053 | 272,101 | -6,952 | -2.5 |
| Observer | 460,235 | 420,182 | -40,053 | -8.7 |
| Sunday Telegraph | 863,147 | 863,180 | 33 | 0.0 |
| Sunday Times | 1,344,638 | 1,351,847 | 7,209 | 0.5 |
| Times | 783,260 | 806,240 | 22,980 | 2.9 |
| TOTAL | 5,813,735 | 5,777,801 | -35,934 | -0.6 |
Even the Daily Telegraph, where just under 70% of sales were at the full rate, experienced a fall of 2.9% to 1.08 million. Indeed, the only quality title which showed any significant increase was the FT, where sales increased 12.8% to 342,570.
Mid Market The middle market newspapers saw overall sales increase by 1.8% to 6.74 million, though both of the Express titles suffered sales drops. The Express on Sunday remains the weaker of the two titles, with a 5.6% drop in sales to 1.1 million compared to the daily’s drop of 1.8% to 1.18 million.
Mid Market Oct-Mar ’98 ABC Comparisons
| Title | Oct 96 – Mar 97 | Oct 97 – Mar 98 | Actual Change | % Change |
| Daily Mail | 2,119,262 | 2,253,898 | 134,636 | 6.4 |
| Express | 1,205,536 | 1,183,321 | -22,215 | -1.8 |
| Express On Sunday | 1,168,279 | 1,102,595 | -65,684 | -5.6 |
| Mail On Sunday | 2,135,970 | 2,209,387 | 73,417 | 3.4 |
| TOTAL | 6,629,047 | 6,749,201 | 120,154 | 1.8 |
The Daily Mail came very close to overtaking the Mirror, with an increase of 6.4% year on year to 2.25 million while the Mail on Sunday rose 3.4% to 2.2 million.
Popular Market Sales amongst the tabloid titles fell 3.5% to 15.45 million copies, though the Sunday People put in a surprise increase of 9.4% to 2.2 million. The Daily Star however fell 9.2% to 681,574 while the Sunday Mirror slipped 9.7% to 2.13 million. There were also drops of 6.1% for the Sun and 2.8% for the News of the World.
Popular Market Oct-Mar ’98 ABC Comparisons
| Title | Oct 96 – Mar 97 | Oct 97 – Mar 98 | Actual Change | % Change |
| Sunday People | 2,019,845 | 2,209,387 | 189,542 | 9.4 |
| Daily Star | 750,458 | 681,574 | -68,884 | -9.2 |
| Mirror | 2,372,365 | 2,290,380 | -81,985 | -3.5 |
| News Of The World | 4,537,641 | 4,409,772 | -127,869 | -2.8 |
| Sun | 3,962,745 | 3,723,163 | -239,582 | -6.1 |
| Sunday Mirror | 2,366,912 | 2,138,296 | -228,616 | -9.7 |
| TOTAL | 16,009,966 | 15,452,572 | -557,394 | -3.5 |
Industry News The new, sole owner of the Independent titles was revealed as Tony O’Reilly’s Independent Newspapers, after the Irish media mogul bought up the stake in the papers he did not already own from the Mirror Group.
The Mirror Group, meanwhile, announced a 12% increase in pre-tax profits to £82 million on the back of turnover up 4% to £559m.
The rumpus over the ownership of the Times continued in March with Paddy Ashdown asking the Government to refer the newspaper to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission. His complaint centred around whether News International’s ownership is influencing the newspaper’s editorial. Later in the month however the DTI said that it would not be investigating the matter as it was a matter for the newspaper’s editors and not the Government.
The FT launched a new look, which involved design tweaks aimed at creating visual “clarity”, while the Guardian announced that it would be revamping its Saturday package in April.
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