The Sun shines in August ABCs
The Sun looks to have bucked the traditional August circulation dip and reaped the rewards of covering the relationship break up of Jordan and Peter André, according to the August ABC circulation figures.
August is subject to the seasonal dip due to summer holidays, with readers ditching their usual newspaper-buying habits. A counterbalance is the start of the Premiership half way through the month with many titles including guides and supplements to the new football season.
The month’s ABC figures for a several newspapers have also been affected by the decision to strip out “bulk” copies from the headline ABC figure. For instance, it is the first full month without bulk sales for both The Guardian and The Observer.
The Sun, which is still priced 20 pence in the Carlton region, posted a 0.23% rise in average net circulation month-on-month to 3,128,501 while the Daily Mirror dropped 1.13% to 1,324,883. The Sun fell 2.25% for the six months March to August, year-on-year, while the Daily Mirror fell 9.44%.
The Daily Star is still benefitting from its low price and saw circulation dip marginally by 0.03% to 886,814.
The Sunday popular titles also benefitted from the Jordan/André bust up and the wide coverage of the original kidnapping and discovery of Jaycee Lee Dugard in California. News of the World’s circulation rose 0.54% rose 3,120,991 while the Sunday Mirror dropped 0.91% to 1,237,227.
The quality weekday newspapers all saw a dip in circulation with The Guardian down 5.29% to 311,387, The Times falling 0.74% to 576,185 to and The Daily Telegraph dipping 0.59% to 814,087. The Independent, which is still the subject of intense speculation as to its future, slid slightly by 0.62% in August to 187,837, down 16.76% for the six month period, year-on-year.
The Financial Times dropped 0.44% on July to 395,845 and is down 6.7% for March to August year-on-year after stripping out bulks.
The quality Sundays, with the exception of the Independent on Sunday, all slipped The Observer fell 9.18 to 361,761 and The Sunday Telegraph dropped 0.56% to 599,131. The Sunday Times, soon to launch is own website, saw a 2.19% slide month-on-month. The Independent on Sunday rose 0.26% but dropped 21.63% for March to August year-on-year.
In the mid-market the Daily Mail fell 0.32% and the Daily Express slid 0.52% to 2,171,686 and 730,234 respectively.
August also saw News International announce the closure of its free newspaper thelondonpaper. Associated Newspaper’s rival free title, the London Lite, recorded a distribution of 400,044 in August.
