May circulation figures arrived and the expression ‘swings and roundabouts’ has never been more appropriate. There seems to have been much movement in the figures and many of the stirrings are below the surface.
The Daily Mirror stayed stationary in comparison to April at 39,000. The Sun dropped back 1,700 on the month but is still marginally ahead of last year. Overall the tabloids were ahead by close to 3,000 on the month.
In the Sunday market the big faller was the Sunday Times where it dropped 3,600 on the month to 73,419.
| Title | May-16 | May-15 | Apr-16 | Y/Y | M/M | % Ch Y/Y |
| Daily Mirror | 39,001 | 41,938 | 38,963 | -2,937 | 38 | -7% |
| Daily Record | 281 | 283 | 287 | -2 | -6 | -1% |
| Irish Daily Star | 51,847 | 56,799 | 54,193 | -4,952 | -2,346 | -9% |
| The Sun | 58,076 | 57,594 | 59,779 | 482 | -1,703 | 1% |
| Tabloids | 149,205 | 156,614 | 153,222 | -7,409 | -4,017 | -5% |
| Daily Express | 2,485 | 2,598 | 2,566 | -113 | -81 | -4% |
| Irish Daily Mail | 46,173 | 51,561 | 44,633 | -5,388 | 1,540 | -10% |
| The Daily Telegraph | 2,334 | 2,688 | 2,510 | -354 | -176 | -13% |
| Financial Times | 2,234 | 2,398 | 2,334 | -164 | -100 | -7% |
| The Guardian | 2,185 | 2,603 | 2,320 | -418 | -135 | -16% |
| The Times | 2,591 | 2,447 | 2,568 | 144 | 23 | 6% |
| Morning Market | 207,207 | 220,909 | 210,153 | -13,702 | -2,946 | -6% |
| Daily Star – Sunday | 15,386 | 15,637 | 15,490 | -251 | -104 | -2% |
| The Sun/NotW | 57,662 | 53,358 | 56,809 | 4,304 | 853 | 8% |
| Sunday Mail | 756 | 789 | 754 | -33 | 2 | -4% |
| Sunday Mirror | 26,140 | 29,773 | 25,932 | -3,633 | 208 | -12% |
| The People | 9,705 | 10,636 | 9,939 | -931 | -234 | -9% |
| Sunday Express | 2,973 | 3,362 | 2,998 | -389 | -25 | -12% |
| Sunday Post | 781 | 861 | 788 | -80 | -7 | -9% |
| The Mail on Sunday | 81,104 | 92,958 | 83,813 | -11,854 | -2,709 | -13% |
| The Observer | 4,239 | 5,143 | 4,484 | -904 | -245 | -18% |
| The Sunday Telegraph | 1,956 | 2,464 | 2,131 | -508 | -175 | -21% |
| The Sunday Times | 73,419 | 81,534 | 77,107 | -8,115 | -3,688 | -10% |
| Sunday Market | 274,121 | 296,515 | 280,245 | -22,394 | -6,124 | -8% |
| Total Market | 481,328 | 517,424 | 490,398 | -36,096 | -9,070 | -7% |
The promotion by The Sun offering the paper at looks like it’s showing up on the books in May where they had to declare how many sales are “Below Full Rate” or at the 50c rate for the duration of the Euros. Given that there was no other ‘below full rate’ promotion during May (that I know of) we can attribute all of those sales to the 50c promotion.
Its only began on the 28th of May and therefore we only get two days of the promotion on the certs – a Saturday and a Sunday. The daily cert is detailed enough in its breakdown of sales showing M-F and Saturday sales and the Sunday cert is only that – so we can extrapolate the sales on the first two days of that promotion.
I estimate they had a sale of just shy of 102,000 (inc multiples) on the first Saturday of the promotion and 70,660 (if you include the multiples) on the first Sunday – both up on the same figures the previous month – but in the numbers you’d expect for a paper selling at half price?
Correction 27/07/16 amended Daily Star Figure.
