“Ta-da” – the cosmetic adverts catchphrase. I use it mockingly as it heralds the publication, finally, of the ABC’s of the reaming newspapers in the market. Plenty of cosmetics would be needed to make these figures even vaguely attractive. The total market contacted by 7% over a twelve month period. The market is still 204m newspapers a year, but falling at 7% per annum isn’t a sustainable business model. The morning market is falling faster
The morning market slipped back 6% to 463,000 since the audit of Jan-June 2013 and has now dropped 28% since 2000. The brunt of the fall was felt in the ‘red tops’ who collectively have fallen 35% since the millennium whereas the non red-tops have declined by 22%. The Irish Independent lost 8,700 copies or 7% of its circulation over the year and managed to kept the bulks at 13% the same as last
The market fell by -6% or 53,000 in twelve months. The Sunday Independent dropped 12,000 over the twelve months to 220,000. The Sunday world lost 13,000 which drops it back to below 200,000 to 198,000. The Sunday Business Post, despite a new look, lost 11% to rest at 34,000. The Daily Star on Sunday does nothing in the market here and is beginning to reap what is it has sown with an 11% decline
Market JD 2013 JD 2012 Diff ‘000 Diff % Total Sunday 811,052 865,221 -54,169 -6% Total Morning 480,585 513,896 -33,311 -6% Total Evening 70,276 75,386 -5,110 -7% Total Market 1,361,913 1,454,503 -92,590 -6%
The Sunday Market, like the morning, dropped 6% year on year, down 54,000 to 811,000. Unlike the morning market where there was a somewhat consistency to the declines the papers in the Sunday Market had very mixed fortunes. If falling circulation still manages to get you the title of ‘best performer’, then the Sunday Independent deserves that accolade. It only dropped 3% year on year and all other titles in the market declined by greater
Morning Market: The first point of reference is that the morning market has fallen below 500k for the first time and, as can see from the various charts accompanying the post, there is no sign of any reversal of fortunes. The big fallers year on year are the Red Tops who collectively are down 8%. The Sun and The Daily Star slug it out for worst performers in the Morning market title, watched on closely
The ABC Island of Ireland report was published today finally detailing the state of the newspaper market. It shows that all of the markets declined in the past twelve months. Sundays are down 9% to 834,000, mornings down 7% to 495,000 and Evenings back 6% to 73,000. Whereas the rate of decline had been lessening in the last few reports, this one reverses that trend with all markets showing a greater percentage drop than
The Sunday newspaper market dropped 9% or 81,000 copies compared to Jan June 2012. Similar to the morning market the tabloids have taken the brunt of that decline having fallen about 40% since 2005 whereas the non-tabloids have dropped about half of that in the same period. The Sunday Independent remains the market leader selling 232,000 every Sunday. It dropped 3% on the same period last year and given that the market dipped 9% it,
The morning market figures show declines across the board but in varying degrees. The total market is down 7%, or a few copies shy of 40,000 in comparison to the same six months in 2013. The biggest faller was The Daily Star which lost 11% (8,500) of its circulation. The Financial Times also lost 13% but it’s coming from a very low base in the first place. In the other tabloids The Sun fell
I stuck to my guns on this one and shepherded the Evening Herald into the ‘Evening Market’. I appreciate that it now appears early morning but I’d hate to break with tradition. As normal there’s little to say about the evening figures. The Echo is down 2,000 copies or 12%, close to the drop of its morning stalemate. The Herald is down 4% or 2,600 copies which may raise an eyebrow or two. Given all
Before we get into each specific market it’s worth looking at the big picture. The market as a whole is down 6% with the morning and evenings falling by 7% in the year. The market has lost 100,000 copy sales in a short twelve month period and you can see from the graphics below that there seems to be no respite in this decline. Although the rate of decline has slowed it’s still a breakneck
The Sunday market, at 865,000, is down 6% on the same six months as last year, a drop of 55,000 copies in twelve months. The Sunday Market headline has to be dominated by the 14% decline in circulation of The Sunday World dropping 34,000 to 217,000. While there are, on the surface, grater declines for all the tabloids in the market, that can be easily explained away by the closing of the NoW and the
In the six months to December 2012, the morning market fell by 7% or 39,000 copies per day compared to the same six months in 2111. The biggest faller in percentage terms was the Daily Star dropping 13% or just over 10,000 copies. This is followed by The Sun, down 8% and the Irish Times back 8%. There doesn’t seem to have been any sleight of hand magic in the respective circulation departments as the
The decline in the number of Regional Papers being part of the ABC process is falling at a pace. Two years ago there were nearly 45 papers (paid for) certified by the ABC, now only 24 decide to confess annually or bi-annually. The only papers to record an increase are the Echo in Dublin and the Donegal News Monday edition. Monday edition.. most likely still living off the special edition the Monday after the All
Just to cover the whole market, you’d have to look at the Evening market. Although you can hardly call one local paper in Dublin and another in Cork a ‘market’. Anyway… Publication JD 2012 JD 2011 Diff ‘000 Diff % Evening Herald 58,826 62,414 -3,588 -6% Echo 16,560 18,632 -2,072 -11% Total 75,386 81,046 -5,660 -7% I like looking at this from 1990 as it shows the true collapse of the evening newspaper in Ireland.
Like the Sunday Market there is a headline figure in the morning market and it’s the Daily Star. It’s nearly out on its own with a double digit decline of 14% falling to 75,000 and down nearly 12,000 copies over the year (let’s spare ourselves all the analogies to the small lights in the sky). In market terms the tabloids have suffered the most at the hands of the recession down collectively 11% year on
Outside the headline figure of a 31% drop for the Sun on Sunday compared to the News of the World, the big story would be the 14% drop in the circulation of the Sunday Business Post. In the last twelve months it lost nearly 7,000 copies and dropped to just above 41,000. Luckily for the spin in the sales department, there are 1,400 copies (3.5%) of ‘bulks’ in that figure – but they’re not alone
The laggards in the ABC certifications finally showed their hands and, without putting too fine a point on it, many of them we holding “Aces and Eights”. The figures make for very grim reading for some publications at this poker table. All the figures are ABC Jan – June 2012 compared to ABC Jan – June 2011. The Sundays narrowly avoided slipping the wrong side of 900k. Helped in this by some cosmetics for the
Regional Newspaper Circualtion Title County Circulation Last Verified Anglo Celt (The) Cavan 12,133 ABC JJ 2011 Argus (The) Louth 9,307 ABC JJ 2011 Athlone Topic Westmeath 5,500 Bray People Wicklow 3,944 ABC JJ 2011 Carlow People Carlow 3,651 ABC JJ 2011 Carrigdhoun The Cork 6,000 Clare Champion Clare 15,742 ABC JD 2011 Clare People Clare 8,753 Connacht Sentinel Galway 5,138 ABC JJ 2011 Connacht Tribune Galway 21,043 ABC JJ 2011 Connaught Telegraph Mayo 14,480 Corkman
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
