Irish Newspaper Circulation March 2012

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Well, the party (or wake) is truly over. The gains some of the titles made when the NotW closed last July were well and truly wiped out this month with a full month figure for The Sun (on Sunday).

The Sun (on Sunday) fell back to 81,000 from its maiden figure of 109,000, which was to be expected. But the buyers have to come from somewhere and they were kindly donated by Sunday Mirror, The Daily Star on Sunday and The People – the very papers that made gains at the NotW closure – to be biblical about it – Job 1:21!

The Sunday Mirror is, this month, below its figure pre NotW closure, having lost 14,598 copies month on month. The Sunday People is now at a record low of 17,613 and the Daily Star on Sunday is still a few thousand copies off its June 2011 figure but down 8,000 month on month.  

Outside the Sunday tabloids – the status quo was more or less maintained. The Sunday market is down nearly 53,000 month on month which implies that more people have left the Sunday market even with the introduction of The Sun (on Sunday) as illustrated by the graph below. The market is still 54,000 below where it was pre closure.     

Sunday Mar_2012

The Sun (on Sunday) is still 32,000 behind where the NotW was this time last year. They are not the same product and so it’s difficult to draw a straight comparison, but it’s just illustrating the gap.

In the mornings the Tabloids have a decent March – most likely due to GAA, Rugby and most defiantly Cheltenham. The Racing Post also gained 1,600 month on month but was marginally behind last year’s figure.  

The Daily Mail gained 2,462 month on month but looking at the certificates you couldn’t help but notice that they had increased their ‘bulks’ this month (1,300 in Feb as opposed to 4,200 in March). There’s probably a promotional reason for the increase and we’ll cast an eye on in next month to see what’s happening there.

The morning market is up 4,700 month on month but down nearly 20,000 year on year.   

Title Mar-12 Feb-12 Mar-11 MoM YoY
Daily Mirror  57,290 58,114 61,071 -824 -3,781
Daily Record 616 632 699 -16 -83
Irish Daily Star 78,818 76,514 89,034 2,304 -10,216
The Sun 72,783 71,576 79,770 1,207 -6,987
Daily Express 2,812 2,825 2,807 -13 5
Irish Daily Mail 51,964 49,502 49,132 2,462 2,832
The Daily Telegraph 2,757 2,815 2,809 -58 -52
Financial Times 3,121 3,369 3,625 -248 -504
The Guardian 3,229 3,277 3,638 -48 -409
i 515 515 679 0 -164
The Independent 849 813 932 36 -83
The Times 2,071 2,085 2,243 -14 -172
Morning Market 276,825 272,037 296,439 4,788 -19,614
Daily Star – Sunday 26,437 34,386 28,307 -7,949 -1,870
The Sun/NotW 81,165 109,450 112,914 -28,285 -31,749
Sunday Mail 1,206 1,360 1,545 -154 -339
Sunday Mirror 42,414 57,012 39,716 -14,598 2,698
The People 17,613 24,803 18,031 -7,190 -418
Sunday Express 3,434 3,643 3,869 -209 -435
Sunday Post 694 724 761 -30 -67
The Mail on Sunday 110,082 109,042 111,690 1,040 -1,608
Independent on Sunday 1,305 1,331 1,340 -26 -35
The Observer 6,385 6,551 7,340 -166 -955
The Sunday Telegraph 2,642 2,879 2,638 -237 4
The Sunday Times 107,025 108,599 114,225 -1,574 -7,200
Sunday  Market 400,402 459,780 414,069 -59,378 -13,667
Racing Post 7,049 5,374 7,420 1,675 -371
Total Market 684,276 737,191 717,928 -52,915 -33,652