Telegraph sales soar

The Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph‘s net circulation has increased by around 220,000 copies amid the MPs’ expense claims scandal.

The first four days of reports in the Telegraph papers, which claim MPs’ have been ‘milking the system’ with their expenses, significantly boosted the sales of each title.

Circulation of last Saturday’s Daily Telegraph increased by 56,000 copies on the previous week, according to reports in the Media Guardian.

Last weekend’s edition of the Sunday Telegraph also saw its circulation rise by 25,000 copies, compared with the previous week.

In addition, the first set of exclusive reports on Gordon Brown and other Labour cabinet ministers’ expense claims last Friday boosted the Daily Telegraph‘s circulation by a substantial 94,000 copies.

Monday’s revelations about the Conservative leader, David Cameron, and his party are also thought to of added a significant number of sales.

The boost is expected to continue with upcoming editions of the two Telegraph titles as it carries on naming and shaming MPs and revealing details about their contentious claims.

However, the sales figures are unofficial and have yet to be certified by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

In the last official ABC release, for April, the Daily Telegraph saw its circulation fall by more than 6% year on year, a real term loss of around 54,000 copies, leaving it with 817,000 in total.

The Sunday Telegraph also suffered an downturn in April, dipping 7% to just under 591,000 copies (see ABC National Newspaper Round-Up: April 2009).