Former tabloid ed says: There may be surprise winners in the NoW circulation free-for-all
Don't assume anything about what the Sunday paper buyer will do next Sunday when there's no Screws on the newsagent's counter
But next week, who will fill the cavernous 2.6 million sales gap ? The obvious candidates are the Sunday Mirror (1,086, 961) and The People (481,224) .
Pursuing the same sort of celebrity agenda, their combined sale languishes more than a million behind the NoW . I have no doubt the midnight oil is being burned at Canary Wharf as to how they can catapult their titles further into contention.
The Daily Star Sunday (305,984) is also a candidate and, of course, the question still unanswered is : will NI rush out a NoW replacement: The Sun on Sunday.
Even if that does happen, my view is that buyers will not necessarily automatically pick up the Seventh-day Sun. Apart from disgust over this week's revelations, there may also be bruised feelings over being abandoned by NI! Reader loyalty cuts both ways!
Then there is the simple fact (not always appreciated by modern newspaper management) that Sunday papers sell better because they ARE different from their daily cousins: the most successful have something extra, an edge that the dailies don't. The best example of that is the Mail On Sunday. Can Murdoch work that magic at short notice?
It's also possible that there will be a reaction against all red tops. Tabloid papers more upmarket in appearance - the Mail on Sunday and the Sunday Express - could be big gainers.
In Scotland, where the Glasgow-based NoW carved a 267,871 chunk out of the market occupied by the Sunday Mail (361,960) and the Sunday Post (304,442), local management will be rubbing their hands . Perhaps Trinity Mirror will be regretting the carnage at the Sunday Mail, stripping it of its independent editorial identity. Perhaps they will even do something about that.
The Sunday Post, much revamped and newsier under editor Donald Martin, is as different from the News of the World as you can possibly imagine. The slogan on its website "A Thoroughly decent read" has until now made me cringe.
Suddenly, it seems to be right on the ball. What could the Post do with an extra push, say a weekly instead of a monthly magazine?