According to the latest ABC figures for February, newspaper sales were down 3 per cent on January as only four titles posted growth month on month – one Sunday from each sector and the i. Longer term, total circulation was down 7.9 per cent compared to February 2013, with only the i and the Guardian seeing sales increase year on year.
The top three selling titles in the UK in February remained unchanged but all three saw circulations decline on January’s figures.The Sun continues to be the biggest selling title, with average sales of 2,048,977 in February. Compared to January, the Sun had the biggest losses both in actual sales (down almost 165k month on month) and proportional sales (down 7.4 per cent) of any title. At this rate, it might just end up selling less than two million a day on average in March.The Daily Mail hangs on to the number two spot with an average net circulation in February of 1,727,118. The Sun on Sunday rounds out the top three, selling 1,695,237 on average in February. Whilst its losses month on month aren’t quite as steep as sister title the Sun’s, compared to January sales were down over 105k on average, equating to a drop of 5.9 per cent month on month, the second sharpest drop of any title.The Independent and Independent on Sunday continue to languish at the bottom of the sales league with the Independent the only national title to sell less than 100k copies per day on average in February.
Both the Daily and Sunday markets saw losses month on month, however the Sunday’s drop was only 1.8 per cent compared to the Daily’s 4.1 per cent, thanks to having three out of the only four titles to see circulations increase on January. Longer term the situation is reversed with the Sundays seeing the steeper fall of 8.5 per cent on last February with the Dailies faring slightly better but not that far behind at 7.3 per cent.By sector, the qualities had the best of it with average sales in February down only 1.2 per cent compared to January and 4.2 per cent on last February. The i was the only national title to claim growth across the short and long term, with the Sunday Times (up 1.0 per cent on last month) and the Guardian (up 1.5 per cent on last year) keeping it company.The mid market sector’s losses were comparable to the qualities month on month, down only 1.4 per cent, but their losses over the longer term were steeper at 6.3 per cent. The popular sector continues to see the biggest losses across both time period meausures, down 4.8 per centon January and 10.5 per cent on last February. The Sunday People was the only title among the populars to post any sales increase, up 1.4 per cent month on month
All figures sourced from ABC. Analysis provided by Fiona Booth, account director, Insight at Carat
