Newspaper ABCs – Scotland: Homegrown titles lose circulation in July
Overview by Fiona Booth – Research Manager
Sales of daily and Sunday newspapers in Scotland in July were down by 1.96%* on last month, according to new figures released by ABC today. The top three titles stayed the same from June with The Sun in pole position posting average sales in Scotland in July of 297,123, slipping under the 300k mark. In second place was the Sunday Mail with an average circulation of 282,073 in July, just ahead of sister title the Daily Record who posted 247,041 this month.
Longer term, the Scottish market is seeing a comparable decline to the national market, with total sales of the dailies and Sundays down 5.09% compared to last July.
All of the homegrown and tartan-topped titles lost circulation this month. The Sunday Post did least badly again, down 1.19% compared to the month prior, whereas Scotland on Sunday claimed the steepest percentage decline again this month, down 6.13% on June. The Sunday Mail is showing the steepest annual decline amongst the homegrown and tartan-topped newspapers, down 25.22% on last July. Some of this decline will have been News of the World refugees who were trying the Sunday Mail this time last year, the first month post News of the World, but didn’t stick.
All figures sourced from ABC
* The Herald and Sunday Herald are now only releasing six monthly figures and are therefore not included in this analysis.