ABC Analysis – National newspaper circulations down during June

Fiona Booth, research manager at Carat, reviews the national newspaper circulation figures for June, published today.

The national newspaper market in June was down 0.59% on May, according to new figures released today by ABC, with the dailies taking marginally less of a hit at -0.33% than the Sundays at -0.86% (borrowing the News of the World’s circulation from June 2011 to compare to The Sun on Sunday in June 2012). The market’s decline over the year is much steeper with total sales down 7.5% on last June - the Sundays faring a little better than the dailies over the longer term, at -7.25% and -7.74% respectively.

The Sun was the highest circulating national daily, again, in June, with an average net circulation for the month of 2,583,552 despite the Sun losing the most physical sales in June both on the month as well as on the year (down 52,208 and 477,504 respectively).

The Mail on Sunday added the most physical sales month on month as well which was also the greatest percentage growth, the uplift of 1.22% on May equating to an extra 21,902 sales. The Daily Star is still claiming the most physical copies over the year, up 167,374 compared to last June, a legacy of the News of the World’s demise.

The Independent’s circulation continues its slide, seeing the greatest percentage drop month on month of 4.24%, as well as year on year at 49.06%, thanks to bulk shifting to sister title i. Sales are now down to 90,001. It shouldn’t come as a great surprise, then, that sister title i lays claim to the greatest year on year growth this month of 57.42%, the additional 99,432 copies its put on not a million miles away from the 86,680 copies that The Independent is conversely down.

Looking at the different sectors within the market, the Mids bucked the trend by seeing a lift in sales of 0.73% on May, with every title in the sector posting increases month on month. Longer term, the picture is still of decline, although the Mids is the least steep being only 5.0% down on the same time last year.

The Times and the Sunday Telegraph were the only two titles in the Qualities sector to post growth this month as the sector as a whole dipped 0.74% on May. Compared to last June, however, the Qualities sector is down 9.22%.

The Popular sector saw the steepest drop in sales month on month, down 1.27%, with only the Daily Mirror seeing any uplift and at a fairly negligible 0.07% at that (although, in a declining market any growth is good growth). Over the year, sales for this sector are down 8.16%, using the News of the World’s last audited figure from June last year to compare to the Sun on Sunday.

All figures sourced from ABC