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% |