Sunday rivals still benefiting from axing of NOTW

The Daily Star Sunday, Sunday Mail, Sunday Mirror and The People are all down month on month with an aggregated drop of 4.27% but for the six month period April to September they are seeing huge jumps for the Daily Star Sunday (41%) and Sunday Mirror (30%), year on year.

The mid-market too is still showing benefit with the Mail on Sunday’s circulation up 3.55% for the six month period, year on year, and the Sunday Express up 8.8%. The former has now enjoyed a solid three months of average net circulation above two million following a period below that benchmark.

Circulations for quality and daily Sunday newspapers continue to drop, although several publishers point to the axing of printed editions overseas and the stripping out of bulks contributing to steeper falls. The Observer showed the biggest Sunday fall, down 12% for the six month period, year on year, for an average circulation of 285,738.

The Guardian’s circulation dropped 3.61% month on month for September to 232,566, The Daily Telegraph dropped 3.94% to 607,186 and The Times 4.53% to 429,554.

The i, the cut price sister to The Independent, was launched a year ago and its circulation is down 3.49% month on month to 184,402. But combined with The Independent, which relaunched this week with a new design, the publisher can offer a joint circulation of more than 350,000.

The Financial Times actually saw circulation rise 3.83% month on month to 344,583%.

Daily tabloids continue to decline with some steep drops for individual titles. The Daily Star is down 3.1% month on month and 16.6% for the period, year on year while The Sun drops 2.51% to 2,725,323 month on month and 6.33% year on year. The Daily Mirror is down 2.65% month on month to 1,143,778 and falls 5.43% year on year.