Celtic Media Group and Johnston Press changes

Two different scenarios is the ever changing landscape of Local press. Celtic Media Group has been acquired but some of its management team and Johnston Press closes one of its titles and makes some editorial changes. Celtic Media Group have acquired five titles from its (one time) parent Dunfermline Press at what can only be described as a fire sale in terms of the previous selling prices of the titles. They have acquired the titles

May ABC Newspaper Circulation 2012

The Kings is dead, long live the King. Not since January 2009 has the Daily Star been out boxed by its rival, The Sun. But even in that figure there is a measure of ‘smoke and mirrors’. The Daily Star circulation figure historically is an amalgam of its Republic of Ireland figure and its Northern Ireland edition (the Green Top). The Sun figure is simply the Republic of Ireland figure – so arguably in this

Irish Newspaper Circulation April 2012

April sees the some of the tabloids take a hammering. The Daily Star lost 3,000 copies month on month, but it’s not a one off. In many of the previous years they have had a heavy drop March to April mainly due to the upsurge in the March figure due to Cheltenham. The Sun (Sunday) lost over 5,000 purchasers month on month and they didn’t show up in anyone else’s figures. In general the month

Saturday Newspaper Sales

The most recent editions of the ACB broke out the sales of the papers available in Ireland (bar the lazy ones) on a Monday to Friday and Saturday averages. It’s quite an interesting list of figures on many fronts. Most importantly, it shows that the Saturday Market, for the papers under scrutiny, is 36% stronger than the Monday-Friday market. If the M-F sale is 8% below the average, then there are going to be days

Irish Newspaper Circulation March 2012

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

February 2012 Newspaper Circulations

The big story this month is what can only be described as The Sun’s (Sunday) maiden voyage.  And the launch fanfare was so great that it managed encouraged a euro out of a 109,000 punters pockets in its first week. Naturally there’s bound to be an element of ‘curtain twitching’ in the figure and next month will be a much better indication of its sale. The comparison is going to be drawn and it’s that

Sunday Newspaper Circulation Circulations July Dec 2011

The Sunday ABC’s very much reflect the demise of the News of the World during the year with only some of the papers gaining on the back of the closure.  With that the Sunday market is down 114,000 copies year on year or 11%– which is still not equal to the sale of the NoW prior to its closure (124,000). The figures would suggest that the majority of NoW purchasers didn’t remain in the market

Irish Morning Newspaper Circulations July Dec 2011

The morning market declined by 6% to 552,000 copies every day. It’s better than the Sunday story, but the morning market still has the same participants as last year unlike the Sunday market. As a group, the tabloids are the real sufferers in the morning market accounting for over half of the drop in circulations. They have also dropped market share to 39%, their lowest share since 1998 – their highest being 45% circa 2005.

Evening Newspaper Circulations July Dec 2011

There really is very little to say in a two horse race. The Herald is down 5% to 62,000 and the Echo back 13% and into the teens  at 18,600. It is the dying market of the newsprint industry. A glance at the chart below tell of the fortunes of the Evening newspaper Market where its been loosing about 6% each year for the past five years.    

Irish Regional Circulations July Dec 2011

A much depleted field than in normal years, with only twenty-five papers opting to produce an audited figure. Last Thursday IN&M announced that although their regional titles had been audited, they would not be auditing their twelve regional papers from here on in. Seemingly the ABC audit figures “did not resonate with local advertisers”. What data instead they hope would “resonate with the advertisers” is a mystery. It’s worth looking back at the fortunes of

Circulations and Revenue

Yet another way to look at the figures is, interestingly, through generated revenue. It should be noted that these are revenues ‘at the till’ and not the revenues accruing to the publisher. Also they are, unfortunately, including bulks as its impossible to guess what figure to put on the bulk sales. But, given those partial constraints, it’s still an interesting look at the cash in the business. The Sunday world manages to increase its revenue

Sun On Sunday Launch

There would have been quite a few of the publishing groups caught on the hop by News internationals statement that it was to go to a seven day edition starting this Sunday. Many observers on Friday were pencilling in mid April for the launch after Rupert Murdoch suggested that Sunday title would launch ‘soon’. We now know the time frame attached to ‘soon’ in the world of Rupert Murdoch. So, one can assume that the

Magazines ABC 2010

A small bit on the Magazines that were in yesterdays ABC’s and there is little else to add!  Title 2011 2010 +/- % All Ireland Kitchen Guide 4,297 5,186 -889 -17.1% Auto Trader – Republic of Ireland 9,171 17,401 -8,230 -47.3% Business Plus 10,453 10,022 431 4.3% Confetti 5,563 5,678 -115 -2.0% Easy Food 26,363 27,102 -739 -2.7% Easy Health and Living 9,193 10,264 -1,071 -10.4% Food & Wine 7,470 7,815 -345 -4.4% GCN (Gay

IN&M pulls out of Regional ABC audit

You can look at a websites analytics and see who, at that moment in time, is looking at the site, where they came from, how many pages they’ve viewed and so on. You can use other software, such as Zopim for example, to communicate instantly with any of the people on line. That’s the type of data advantage that any ‘traditional’ medium is competing against. So why, when you have limited data in the first

JNRS 2011

Nine fallers and four managed a gain in the latest JNRS released today. The Irish Independent and the Mirror share the stage (probably for the first time), but both for very different reasons. The Mirrors accolade was that it grew 11% in readership year on year and on the other hand the Irish Independent lost 11% or 62,000 readers and drops below the half a million mark. Also in the morning market, The Irish Times

Another Superinjunction? MKII

I have every sympathy for the guy, who has, must, remain nameless. On the basis that there is an on-going legal wrangle and the fact that I was on the receiving end of some “correspondence” from his “advisors”, I’ll tread lightly. Not because of the correspondence (which, by the way, was replied to and legalled from this end), but more to respect the on-going case and, in a strange way, for the individual concerned. I am slightly

Irish Newspaper Circulation January 2012

Before we’re all lulled into a false sense of hope, it should be pointed out that historically there is always an uplift in January sales in comparison to December. So, true to form, the market is up over 33,000 month on month. The only sales (due to this natural uplift) worth pointing out would be the Mail on Sunday which gained over 8,000 copies and the Sunday Times who managed to put on over 9,000

Augmented Reality and print

Another “innovation” that should/might/probably won’t be adapted by the print media, although they are in a prime position to do so. It’s all to do with what’s called Augmented Reality and aided by Image recognition. The principal is straightforward enough, although I’d suggest that the technology is not. It’s similar in function to QR codes, but probably suits the newspapers a little better. The company that seem to be grabbing all the headlines in this

Irish Newspaper Circulation December 2011

If only we were discussing the six monthly figures, all of them. But we’re not because some of the papers will not be filing their six monthly figures until 16th February 2012. So, on that date, you can finally find out what the Irish Independent, Irish Times etc sold in July of last year. Breakneck pace. For those who did provide the timely information required it’s grim reading. Month on month the big fallers in

Irish Newspaper Circulation November 2011

Our penultimate figure for 2011 and still no Ho Ho Ho! Looking at the month on month figures the Sun seems to have had a real dip loosing over 4,500 copies in a month. The sales have most likely disappeared into the ether and, if you’re a regular watcher, that’s a euphemism for gone, never to return. December (due to the festivities) normally sees the morning market drop by about 5% so it’s looking like