The Sun and FT shine despite sector decline

The Sun and the Financial Times have reported circulation increases despite a dismal six months in national newspapers. The latest figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) show falls across the market.

The figures, for the six months to March, show a 0.31% year-on-year increase to 3,090,927 for The Sun despite the daily tabloid market experiencing a 1.74% dip year-on-year. The tabloid market has dropped from 0.56% in the last set of figures. Rival Daily Mirror has seen a 3.94% drop year-on-year and the Daily Star reported a 4.19% fall.

Meanwhile, the FT reported a 1.12% year-on-year increase to 448,540 as interest in the credit crunch continues. The rise mirrors its performance in the last ABCs when a 0.69% increase made it the only paper to put on circulation across the quality daily market. The Independent, which has this week confirmed Roger Alton, former editor of The Observer, as editor, reported a 5.05% year-on-year drop to 241,702. The Guardian saw a 3.60% fall year-on-year to 360,415 and The Times fell by 3.33% to 626,906. The Daily Telegraph retained its position as the best selling quality daily with a 2.5% year on year drop in circulation to 877,727.

The mid-market dailies reported a 1.02% year-on-year decline with the Daily Express seeing the biggest falls of 2.32 to 753,093 compared to The Daily Mail, which saw a 0.59% drop to 2,318,029.

The Sunday paper market saw some significant falls across all of the markets with the Sunday Express seeing an 11.73% year-on-year fall to 690,629, The Independent on Sunday reported a 4.7% drop to 214,858 and the Sunday Sport seeing a 13.62% dip to 88,021.

In the Sunday broadsheets, The Observer reported the smallest fall of 0.93% to 457,471. The Sunday Times saw a 3.82% drop to 1,212,679 and The Sunday Telegraph saw a 3.49% drop to 632,528.

Meanwhile, in the tabloids The Sunday Mirror recorded a 1.52% year on year drop, the smallest across the market, to 1,351,947 with the News of the World seeing a 3.72% drop to 3,260,677.

The Mail on Sunday reported a dip of 1.54% to 2,274,376.