NEW ABC National Newspaper Saturday split

Today’s ABC release confirms the significant uplift of Saturday newspaper editions, as ABC reports a Monday-Friday and Saturday split for the first time.

The Guardian sees the biggest difference in weekday to weekend sales, more than doubling its weekday circulation – now down to just 178,000 – on a Saturday to 377,000 copies. The Daily Mail also sees a huge uplift, selling nearly a million more copies on a Saturday (1.7 million rising to 2.7 million).

The only title not to benefit from a Saturday boost is The Daily Star, down -1%, while all other daily newspapers enjoy an average increase of around 30%.

Overall, over two million more newspapers are sold on Saturdays (10.4 million), which is not necessarily surprising given the investment and promotion in Saturday products and marketing, although cover prices are higher.

But what does this say about future business models? Will we see daily print editions being replaced by digital only, or nationals following the regional press model?