Daily Star bucks Christmas downturn

The Daily Star was the only newspaper to enjoy a month on month growth during December, according to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations figures. The holiday period saw big falls in circulation across the daily and Sunday newspaper sectors.

Express Newspapers’ Daily Star rose 1.61% month on month, though it continued to fall 7.19% year on year to 726,527. The Daily Star Sunday, however, fell 1.42% month on month and by 16.95% to 369,096 year on year.

The total daily newspaper sector was hit by a 3.14% month on month fall, which was much higher than the 0.20% decline recorded in November.

Net circulation for the Sunday titles fell 4.84% month on month, which was similarly much higher than the 0.84% fall in November.

There were unsurprising, sustained year on year declines among all the titles, with the exception of Associated Newspapers’ Evening Standard, which rose 3.04% to 294,337.

Month on month, News International’s The Sun fell 4.81% to 2,899,310, which was higher than the marginal fall of 0.48% in November. The News of the World also fell 5.26% month on month to 2,987,730, which was in contrast to the 0.47% rise it experienced in November.

The publisher’s Times Media titles also saw greater month on month falls in December compared to November, with The Sunday Times hit the hardest, down 5.56% to 1,155,589.

Guardian News & Media titles also took a knock during the holiday period, with The Guardian falling 4.29% month on month to 343,010, compared to the 1.16% rise it recorded in November. The Observer also fell 5.33% to 420,323.

It was the same story for the Financial Times, which saw a 2.94% month on month fall to 435,319, compared to the 0.70% fall it recorded in November.