April brought the tail end of the Easter Holidays which is sometimes a disruptive period for newspapers. However, it does not seem to have had an adverse effect on sales of The Sun which is showing a 3% increase month on month. Conversely, the Daily Star had a bad month dropping 2,300 copies or 5% on the month.
This is marginally eclipsed by the fall in sales of the Sunday Times, which dropped 4,000 copies or 5% in April. Unaccustomed as I am to idle speculation I will posit the following: I don’t think that it’s any coincidence that a rival in the market, The Sunday Business Post, began its investigations into ‘Oifiggangaire,’ aka Talbot Street and the wider INM, late March and the beginning of April and continued its scrutiny throughout that month.
I’d speculate that a fair share of the 4,000 sales The Sunday Times lost (even though they had their own analysis and exclusives in the INM story) went to the Sunday Business Post.
However, we will have to wait until the 23rd of August, when the Island of Ireland report is released, to see if, in fact, the Sunday Business Post had a good circulation lift in April.
Event having jettisoned the bulks the Daily and Sunday editions of the Mail had a good month adding 900 and 1,100 respectively. The market is down 1% on the month and 8% on the year.
Title | Apr-18 | Mar-18 | Apr-17 | M/M | Y/Y | % M/M | % Y/Y |
Daily Mirror | 30,450 | 29,949 | 34,792 | 501 | -4,342 | 2% | -12% |
Daily Record | 267 | 247 | 296 | 20 | -29 | 8% | -10% |
Irish Daily Star | 47,238 | 49,548 | 51,639 | -2,310 | -4,401 | -5% | -9% |
The Sun | 57,627 | 55,962 | 56,806 | 1,665 | 821 | 3% | 1% |
Tabloids | 135,582 | 135,706 | 143,533 | -124 | -7,951 | 0% | -6% |
Daily Express | 2,316 | 2,173 | 2,544 | 143 | -228 | 7% | -9% |
Irish Daily Mail | 32,714 | 31,795 | 41,065 | 919 | -8,351 | 3% | -20% |
The Daily Telegraph | 1,989 | 1,869 | 2,194 | 120 | -205 | 6% | -9% |
Financial Times | 2,224 | 2,044 | 2,328 | 180 | -104 | 9% | -4% |
The Guardian | 1,965 | 1,858 | 2,262 | 107 | -297 | 6% | -13% |
The Times | 7,018 | 6,809 | 2,579 | 209 | 4,439 | 3% | 172% |
Morning Market | 183,808 | 182,254 | 196,505 | 1,554 | -12,697 | 1% | -6% |
Daily Star – Sunday | 14,163 | 16,012 | 15,767 | -1,849 | -1,604 | -12% | -10% |
The Sun on Sunday | 53,254 | 52,720 | 52,347 | 534 | 907 | 1% | 2% |
Sunday Mail | 682 | 794 | 781 | -112 | -99 | -14% | -13% |
Sunday Mirror | 20,464 | 21,083 | 22,445 | -619 | -1,981 | -3% | -9% |
The People | 7,622 | 7,672 | 8,300 | -50 | -678 | -1% | -8% |
Sunday Express | 2,520 | 2,756 | 3,146 | -236 | -626 | -9% | -20% |
Sunday Post | 385 | 386 | 701 | -1 | -316 | 0% | -45% |
The Mail on Sunday | 63,449 | 62,325 | 78,118 | 1,124 | -14,669 | 2% | -19% |
The Observer | 4,121 | 4,480 | 4,406 | -359 | -285 | -8% | -6% |
The Sunday Telegraph | 1,588 | 1,545 | 1,711 | 43 | -123 | 3% | -7% |
The Sunday Times | 74,149 | 78,224 | 79,743 | -4,075 | -5,594 | -5% | -7% |
Sunday Market | 242,397 | 247,997 | 267,465 | -5,600 | -25,068 | -2% | -9% |
Total Market | 426,205 | 430,251 | 463,970 | -4,046 | -37,765 | -1% | -8% |