News of the World circulation up as paywall introduced

The newspaper’s circulation was up 2.77% in September 2010 to 2,948,328, but saw a 5.38% decline year on year in average net circulation.

The Sun’s circulation fell 1.18% month on month to 2,974,405, but remained in the top spot with the highest average UK circulation. News International sister paper The Times was down 1.48% to 486,868 and had one of the biggest year on year declines of 14.07%.

The Times launched its online paywall in July, with the News of the World paywall launching its version last week.

The Times has suffered against the other qualities with The Guardian reporting a 2.21% month on month increase to 278,129, but experiencing 13.52% decline year on year. Similarly, its Sunday newspaper The Observer saw a 5.32% increase with 325,502 in the month, but it was down 18.04% from 2009.

Both papers had been running a film season promotion towards the end of September, which may have boosted sales.

Financial Times saw a significant increase in September with a 3.63% rise to 390,228, but it was down 4.86% year on year. The Independent also saw a small rise of 0.2% to 182,776 month on month, but a 4.42% year on year drop.

The Daily Star boosted its circulation, the only weekday tabloid to record an increase, with a 0.27% rise to 864,315. Its Northern and Shell sister paper the Daily Express dropped 1.75% to an average net circulation of 659,650. The Mirror dropped 1.59% to 1,213,323 over the month.

Daily Mail remained strong with an average circulation at 2,144,229, despite a 1.17% drop in the month. The Mail on Sunday reported a 0.26% rise in average monthly circulation to 1,969,990.

Among the other Sundays, Northern and Shell’s titles saw the biggest declines, with Daily Star Sunday recording a 2.58% drop to 371,457, and the Sunday Express at 560,273, following a 2.54% fall in average circulation in September.