April 2016 ABC Newspaper Sales

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If you saw last month’s figures you may have been lulled in a false scene of security by some of the numbers. But April is most definitely payback time. The Cheltenham pin-prickers and multiple tabloid purchases have all but disappeared and the tabloids took a knock for 4,400 copies collectively month on month.

The Daily Star took the brunt of that blow shedding 3,000 copies on the month, but, on a positive note, it’s ahead of where it was in February so perhaps the pages thrown at the festival yielded some dividends. Nothing really spectacular happened in the morning market outside that.

Title Apr-16 Apr-15 Mar-16 Y/Y M/M % Ch
Daily Mirror 38,963 42,865 39,150 -3,902 -187 -9%
Daily Record 287 311 276 -24 11 -8%
Irish Daily Star 54,193 59,030 57,239 -4,837 -3,046 -8%
The Sun 59,779 58,034 60,995 1,745 -1,216 3%
Tabloids 153,222 160,240 157,660 -7,018 -4,438 -4%
Daily Express 2,566 2,552 2,454 14 112 1%
Irish Daily Mail 44,633 47,586 45,695 -2,953 -1,062 -6%
             
The Daily Telegraph 2,510 2,609 2,450 -99 60 -4%
Financial Times 2,334 2,388 2,263 -54 71 -2%
The Guardian 2,320 2,591 2,297 -271 23 -10%
The Times 2,568 2,379 2,513 189 55 8%
Morning Market 210,153 220,345 215,332 -10,192 -5,179 -5%
             
Daily Star – Sunday 15,490 16,073 15,022 -583 468 -4%
The Sun/NotW 56,809 53,023 55,554 3,786 1,255 7%
Sunday Mail 754 729 744 25 10 3%
Sunday Mirror 25,932 29,909 26,514 -3,977 -582 -13%
The People 9,939 11,113 9,997 -1,174 -58 -11%
             
Sunday Express 2,998 3,076 2,732 -78 266 -3%
Sunday Post 788 915 866 -127 -78 -14%
The Mail on Sunday 83,813 92,091 84,431 -8,278 -618 -9%
             
The Observer 4,484 4,765 4,237 -281 247 -6%
The Sunday Telegraph 2,131 2,169 1,943 -38 188 -2%
The Sunday Times 77,107 83,101 77,099 -5,994 8 -7%
Sunday     Market 280,245 296,964 279,139 -16,719 1,106 -6%
             
Total Market 490,398 517,309 494,471 -26,911 -4,073 -5%

The Sundays don’t ‘do’ Cheltenham and therefore don’t suffer the same cyclical effect. On the surface there were some decent gains, notably with The Sun on Sunday showing a 7% gain month on month.

Other papers of note are the Trinity Mirror group of titles (Mirror and People) who, I think, are beginning to struggle in the Sunday market. The Sunday Mirror started the year at 29,200 and has dropped 3,300 in four months – a decline of 11%.

Only two papers in the market have shown double digit falls in the four months – The Sunday Mirror and Daily Mail. The latter’s figures swing wildly at times through high impact promotions, bulks or both and so that -11% deviation is somewhat accounted for in that.

And on bulks is worth taking stock of who is using that, very legitimate, facility:

Product Total April Multiples % Bulk
The Mail on Sunday 83,813 3,961 5%
Daily Mail 44,633 3,664 8%
The Sun on Sunday 56,809 2,199 4%
The Sun 59,779 2,006 3%
Financial Times 2,334 127 5%
The Times 2,568 3 0%