ABC Circulation December 2015

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For the monthly providers of circulation data the report today the final one for 2015. This also allows us to provide their July-December numbers. For the other papers on our shelves, we will have to wait for another few weeks until they provide that data.

The December’s numbers were nothing by way of excitement with the Daily Star providing something by way of change as it managed a gain on the month of 1,200 whereas and The Sun on the other hand dropping over 700.

In the Sundays there were two big fallers: The Sun on Sunday fell by over 4,000 copies on the month (-7%) and The Sunday Times fell by 3,600 on the month (-5%). Most likely these falls were from events outside these numbers, perhaps the papers whose numbers we don’t have were piling on the Christmas pressure with magazines, supplements and other promotions which had an adverse effect on some other publications here.

December 2015

Title Dec-15 Dec-14 Nov-15 Y/Y M/M % Ch Y/Y
Daily Mirror  38,607 43,918 39,017 -5,311 -410 -12%
Daily Record 254 279 259 -25 -5 -9%
Irish Daily Star 54,498 54,515 53,223 -17 1,275 0%
The Sun 55,324 56,101 56,084 -777 -760 -1%
Tabloids 148,683 154,813 148,583 -6,130 100 -4%
Daily Express 2,405 2,559 2,407 -154 -2 -6%
Irish Daily Mail 45,922 43,850 46,592 2,072 -670 5%
             
The Daily Telegraph 2,493 2,712 2,479 -219 14 -8%
Financial Times 2,252 2,381 2,313 -129 -61 -5%
The Guardian 2,404 2,705 2,354 -301 50 -11%
The Times 2,465 2,369 2,488 96 -23 4%
Morning Market 206,624 211,389 207,216 -4,765 -592 -2%
             
Daily Star – Sunday 15,496 18,781 7,064 -3,285 8,432 -17%
The Sun/NotW 51,738 54,881 55,739 -3,143 -4,001 -6%
Sunday Mail 667 883 769 -216 -102 -24%
Sunday Mirror 27,964 33,260 28,006 -5,296 -42 -16%
The People 10,587 12,508 10,202 -1,921 385 -15%
             
Sunday Express 2,989 3,374 3,002 -385 -13 -11%
Sunday Post 849 520 912 329 -63 63%
The Mail on Sunday 88,229 91,611 88,759 -3,382 -530 -4%
             
The Observer 4,584 5,166 4,669 -582 -85 -11%
The Sunday Telegraph 2,059 2,449 2,149 -390 -90 -16%
The Sunday Times 77,714 86,059 81,475 -8,345 -3,761 -10%
Sunday   Market 282,876 309,492 282,746 -26,616 130 -9%
             
Total Market 489,500 520,881 489,962 -31,381 -462 -6%

The six month data for July December 2015 furnishes little in the way of surprise or indeed comfort for newspaper publishers. Although the data is as yet incomplete it shows that the Sunday’s under scrutiny are down 9.7% on the year and the morning’s are back 4.2%.

I’ve mentioned this before: if we take the papers that produce data on a monthly basis and look at their six month averages over the last ten periods, back to 2010, then compare it to the six month data of the papers that provide numbers bi-annually their correlation is exactly 1 – they have a “have a perfect positive relationship”!

So, even though we have no data for the likes if the Irish Times and Irish independent on a monthly basis, given the perfect correlation between the two sets of data, you can take it that what’s happening to the papers who provide monthly data is being mirrored by the other papers not reporting data.

The only fly in the ointment in this perfect correlation theory is intervention by way of bulks etc. In the main the monthly papers are not given to inflating their figures with 97% of the total circulation being at retail full rate – the same cannot be said of the bi-annual providers.

July December 2015

Publication JD 2015 JD 2014 Diff ‘000 Diff %
Irish Independent n/a n/a    
Irish Times n/a n/a    
Examiner n/a n/a    
         
Daily Mirror 40,318 46,625 -6,307 -13.5%
Irish Daily Star 55,408 58,541 -3,133 -5.4%
The Sun 58,482 58,909 -427 -0.7%
         
Daily Express 2,627 2,715 -88 -3.2%
Irish Daily Mail 46,019 45,139 880 1.9%
Daily Telegraph 2,628 2,728 -99 -3.6%
Financial Times 2,309 2,388 -79 -3.3%
Guardian 2,507 2,724 -217 -8.0%
The Times 2,603 2,382 221 9.3%
         
Total 212,901 222,150 -9,248 -4.2%
         
Publication JD 2015 JD 2014 Diff ‘000 Diff %
Sunday Independent  n/a n/a    
Sunday World n/a n/a    
Sunday Business Post n/a n/a    
         
Daily Star Sunday 13,106 18,753 -5,648 -30.1%
The Sun (Sunday) 55,675 55,551 124 0.2%
Irish Sunday Mirror 28,882 33,727 -4,845 -14.4%
The People 10,781 12,558 -1,777 -14.2%
         
Sunday Express 3,161 3,377 -216 -6.4%
Mail on Sunday 85,226 95,606 -10,381 -10.9%
         
The Observer 4,769 5,214 -445 -8.5%
Sunday Telegraph 2,274 2,481 -207 -8.3%
Sunday Times 79,831 87,049 -7,217 -8.3%
         
Total 283,705 314,316 -30,612 -9.7%