Comparing month on month is a bit of ‘smoke and mirrors’. January is such a dead month for newspaper sales, using it can be a poor comparison. Since we are in February – we have no choice.
Taking that into account, there were some positives. The Sun bounced back with an extra 2,300 copies on the previous month and seemingly not at the expense of any of the other tabloids. Other than that, the status quo was maintained in the mornings.
The Mail on Sunday had a great month adding over 4,000 and the News of the World added a similar figure. Would the publicity surrounding Mr Paul Williams and his departure from the Sunday World to the News of the World have had an effect on that number?
The fallers were the Daily Star, The People and The Sunday Times.
| Title | Jan | Feb | Diff |
| Daily Mirror | 59,378 | 59,293 | -85 |
| Daily Record | 872 | 893 | 21 |
| Irish Daily Star | 94,957 | 95,111 | 154 |
| The Sun | 84,549 | 86,872 | 2,323 |
| Daily Express | 3,077 | 2,988 | -89 |
| Irish Daily Mail | 52,843 | 53,235 | 392 |
| The Daily Telegraph | 2,896 | 2,775 | -121 |
| Financial Times | 3,487 | 3,784 | 297 |
| The Guardian | 3,983 | 3,862 | -121 |
| The Independent | 1,195 | 1,088 | -107 |
| The Times | 2,478 | 2,492 | 14 |
| Morning Market | 309,715 | 312,393 | 2,678 |
| The Mail on Sunday | 112,011 | 116,102 | 4,091 |
| Daily Star – Sunday | 56,570 | 54,611 | -1,959 |
| News of the World | 126,482 | 129,921 | 3,439 |
| Sunday Mail | 2,633 | 1,670 | -963 |
| Sunday Mirror | 36,974 | 36,752 | -222 |
| The People | 21,798 | 20,374 | -1,424 |
| The Sunday Times | 115,118 | 113,963 | -1,155 |
| Sunday Express | 3,928 | 4,016 | 88 |
| Sunday Post | 795 | 811 | 16 |
| Independent on Sunday | 1,858 | 1,502 | -356 |
| The Observer | 8,847 | 8,608 | -239 |
| The Sunday Telegraph | 2,511 | 2416 | -95 |
| Racing Post | 5,990 | 6,726 | 736 |
| Sunday Market | 383,504 | 381,370 | -2,134 |
| Total Market | 693,219 | 693,763 | 544 |
The Market year on year is the real story where the Mornings are back nearly 30,000 with The Sun and Daily Star with the biggest declines of nine and eight thousand respectively.
The Sundays, year on year, declined by nearly 36,000 with the News of the World, The People, Mirror and Star on Sunday showing the biggest losses – basically the tabloid market.
The only paper to show a monthly year on year increase was the Mail On Sunday up 2,600.
| Top Five Declines | Y on Y |
| The Sun | -9,291 |
| Irish Daily Star | -8,570 |
| News of the World | -5,631 |
| The People | -5,589 |
| Sunday Mirror | -5,023 |
