“Ta-da” – the cosmetic adverts catchphrase. I use it mockingly as it heralds the publication, finally, of the ABC’s of the reaming newspapers in the market. Plenty of cosmetics would be needed to make these figures even vaguely attractive.
The total market contacted by 7% over a twelve month period. The market is still 204m newspapers a year, but falling at 7% per annum isn’t a sustainable business model. The morning market is falling faster than the Sunday market and you can have as many hypothesis on that as you like.
Market | JJ 2014 | JJ 2013 | Diff ‘000 | Diff % |
Total Sunday | 780,613 | 834,374 | -53,761 | -6% |
Total Morning | 463,163 | 495,991 | -32,828 | -7% |
Total Evening | 63,600 | 73,942 | -10,342 | -14% |
Total Market | 1,307,376 | 1,405,818 | -98,441 | -7% |
The two graphs below illustrate the fortunes of each segment. But the last graph shows the rate of decline in each market.
I’ve superimposed out GDP growth/decline over the same period to further illustrate that at one point the fortunes of the economy and the newspaper market were intrinsically linked it would seem. Now there would seem to have been an uncoupling of this bond – for the worse.
The table below shows the titles (with a circulation above 20,000) in comparison to last year. Its ranked in percentage terms (the table is sortable – just click on the column heading you want to sort)
Publication | JJ 2014 | JJ 2013 | Diff ‘000 | Diff % |
Evening Herald | 51,600 | 58,545 | -6,945 | -11.86% |
Sunday Business Post | 34,012 | 38,293 | -4,281 | -11.18% |
Irish Sunday Mirror | 35,467 | 39,186 | -3,719 | -9.49% |
Irish Daily Star | 60,998 | 66,773 | -5,775 | -8.65% |
Daily Mirror | 50,263 | 54,550 | -4,287 | -7.86% |
Examiner | 35,026 | 37,897 | -2,871 | -7.58% |
Irish Independent | 112,383 | 121,120 | -8,737 | -7.21% |
The Sun | 60,711 | 65,263 | -4,552 | -6.97% |
Sunday Times | 91,841 | 98,328 | -6,487 | -6.60% |
Sunday World | 198,260 | 211,161 | -12,901 | -6.11% |
Mail on Sunday | 100,082 | 105,913 | -5,831 | -5.51% |
Sunday Independent | 220,565 | 232,494 | -11,929 | -5.13% |
Irish Times | 80,332 | 84,201 | -3,869 | -4.59% |
The Sun (Sunday) | 55,417 | 57,618 | -2,201 | -3.82% |
Irish Daily Mail | 50,503 | 51,675 | -1,172 | -2.27% |