Circulation

February 2012 Newspaper Circulations

The big story this month is what can only be described as The Sun’s (Sunday) maiden voyage.  And the launch fanfare was so great that it managed encouraged a euro out of a 109,000 punters pockets in its first week. Naturally there’s bound to be an element of ‘curtain twitching’ in the figure and next month will be a much better indication of its sale. The comparison is going to be drawn and it’s that the Sun Sunday (SS) is still 8,600 behind where the NoW was in February 2011. Interestingly, the other papers that muscled in on the NoW readers when it closed manage to hang on to the vast majority of their hostages when the SoS appeared last month. Across the pond is another story: In May 2011 the NoW was selling 2.4m copies every Sunday. The Sun (Sunday) sold 3.06m copies nearly 700k more. Again, wait ‘till the dust settles and see where that stabilises    The biggest faller, the Sunday Mirror, was the biggest gainer after the closure. It fell back 4,300 copies this month and the Sunday People dropped 1,400. The Mail on Sunday fell over 6,000 and I’d be weary of attributing that drop completely to the introduction of the SS and likewise the fall in the Sunday Times (-5,300). The Sunday market managed a month on month rise, but is still down 24,000 on the previous year. In the Morning market the Sun slipped another 1,700 and is dangerously close to falling into the 60’s.  The Mirror fell 1,300 and other than that all the papers managed to be roughly in the same position as last month. Year on year its down...

Sunday Newspaper Circulation Circulations July Dec 2011

The Sunday ABC's very much reflect the demise of the News of the World during the year with only some of the papers gaining on the back of the closure.  With that the Sunday market is down 114,000 copies year on year or 11%– which is still not equal to the sale of the NoW prior to its closure (124,000). The figures would suggest that the majority of NoW purchasers didn’t remain in the market after their Sunday paper closed. Personally, I’d suggest that the NoW was, in the majority of buying scenarios, a ‘secondary purchase’ and, once gone, the purchasers were faced with a dilemma: to buy another paper as a substitute- which a small amount did (reflected in the uplift of the Sunday Mirror up 28,000 or 74% year on year and its stable mate the Sunday People up 8,000 or 44%) or not bother substituting at all – which seems to have been the majority decision. The Sunday Independent dropped back to 236,000 a fall of 7% which was marginally worse than the Sunday Business Post which now sells 43,000 down 6%. In all of the Sunday titles, bulks aren’t an issue, well no more than last year anyway, with the Sunday Independent topping that table at 5% of its ‘sales’. The Sunday World hasn’t been under the microscope this year as...

Irish Morning Newspaper Circulations July Dec 2011

The morning market declined by 6% to 552,000 copies every day. It’s better than the Sunday story, but the morning market still has the same participants as last year unlike the Sunday market. As a group, the tabloids are the real sufferers in the morning market accounting for over half of the drop in circulations. They have also dropped market share to 39%, their lowest share since 1998 – their highest being 45% circa 2005. By far the worst result in the morning comes from the Daily Star dropping nearly 10,000 copies to 81,000. Not far behind is its rival, The Sun, which lost over 8,000 to 75,000. The Mirror, under the circumstances, did well dropping only 2,000 to 59,000. It’s a terrible thing having to applaud a small drop! The graph at the bottom shows that, collectively, the tabloids dipped disproportionally in comparison to the market as a whole. Aside from a small uplift in 2007, the tabloids have been in decline since 2005. Maybe we didn’t need Nouriel Roubini (Doctor No) to predict the beginning of the end, we should have just kept out eye on the tabloid market instead.. The Daily Mail is one of the only papers in neutral/positive territory managing to drop only 47 copies on the same period last year. The Irish Times Marking department will have to get cleaver in trying to negotiate the elephant in the room that is their fall below 100,000 copies per day. It’s been 1996, or fifteen years, since...

Irish Newspaper Circulation January 2012

Before we’re all lulled into a false sense of hope, it should be pointed out that historically there is always an uplift in January sales in comparison to December. So, true to form, the market is up over 33,000 month on month. The only sales (due to this natural uplift) worth pointing out would be the Mail on Sunday which gained over 8,000 copies and the Sunday Times who managed to put on over 9,000 copies. The last time the Sunday Times had a sale of that magnitude was back in January 2010, so that’s a very encouraging start to the year. Year on Year the numbers are unimpressive. The Sunday market, paper on paper, looks positive. The combined net gains of the Sunday papers is close to 36,000 copies. But in January 2010 the NoW was selling 122,000, so we can say that about 86,000 of the NoW old purchasers have deserted the market completely.   The Irish Daily Star sales year on year are down nearly 14,000 copies which is by far the worst performing of all the papers. Coupled with trying to fight the tabloid wars on the home front, it is now also having to fight a circulation war in house. The ‘Blue top edition’ of the Daily Star (aka the UK version) is now selling 1,100 per morning in the republic which has to be hurting the ‘Irish’ edition. At the till those “UK” sales are worth nearly half a million which has to be coming form somewhere.   The Sunday Mirror is still seeing a lift after the NoW closure, but maybe losing some of that momentum.  Likewise the Sunday People is up nearly 6,000 year on Year. The Sunday...

Irish Newspaper Circulation December 2011

If only we were discussing the six monthly figures, all of them. But we’re not because some of the papers will not be filing their six monthly figures until 16th February 2012. So, on that date, you can finally find out what the Irish Independent, Irish Times etc sold in July of last year. Breakneck pace. For those who did provide the timely information required it’s grim reading. Month on month the big fallers in the Morning were the tabloids losing close to 6,000 copies collectively. The Sun now lies perilously to the 70,000 mark, which, if it tips over the edge, would not be good for either image or marketing. Looking at the longer term the morning market year on year is back just shy of 17,000 copies, the Daily Star making up more than half of that loss.   Turning to the Sundays. It must be very disconcerting for the principals of the Daily Star on Sunday to see that the ‘UK’ edition that replaced the Irish Edition when it closed is only 15,000 copies off the Irish editions circulation figure.   The Sunday Mirror and the People are down nearly 3,000 each but are still way ahead of last year’s figure due to the closure of the News of the World. The Mirror seems to be doing a good job in retaining the readers it got from that closure so far and it will be interesting to see what they retain after the Christmas break.    Mail on Sunday is down 4,000 month on month and over 8,000 on the year. The Sunday Times was the biggest faller this month dropping 5,000 copies month on month but still 2,000 on...

Irish Newspaper Circulation November 2011

Our penultimate figure for 2011 and still no Ho Ho Ho! Looking at the month on month figures the Sun seems to have had a real dip loosing over 4,500 copies in a month. The sales have most likely disappeared into the ether and, if you’re a regular watcher, that’s a euphemism for gone, never to return. December (due to the festivities) normally sees the morning market drop by about 5% so it’s looking like a bad end to the year for News International. The Daily Star is not fighting a battle on two fronts. It’s bad enough being in the trenches fighting in the tabloid market against the other red tops, without a sort of mutiny. Their partner in the JV Northern shell decided to sell the UK version of the Daily Star beside the Irish version. Granted it’s the same price and has a distinctive blue masthead but that doesn’t help matters. In November it managed to sell 680 copies of the UK edition. I’d argue strongly that they were sales that would have otherwise gone to the Irish version. Now you may be rolling your eyes at the paltry figure of 630 copies – but it equates to just shy of €300,000 per annum at the till. That’s money that was once going to Independent Star Limited (the Irish Version company) and is now winging its way into UK coffers. It’s not a jingoistic rant. I’d much prefer if that money was being looked after by Paul Cooke (MD) and Ger Colleran (Ed) up in Dundrum. The...

Irish Newspaper Circulations September 2011

Its look as if the August slump was just that as the market bounced back again in September. The same occurred last year with sales dropping in August and resurrecting themselves again in September. The Mornings were down over 6,000 copies month on month and down 24,000 year on year. The Sun seems to have been hit badly in September dropping 3,456 month on month. Other than that headline all the other papers in the Morning saw modest fluctuations. The Sunday market was where the gains were – or should that be “gain”. The Sunday Mirror added nearly 17,000 copies in the month and it now has a higher circulation than it did in July when the News of the World closed. The only other paper to hold that distinction is The People. All the other papers failed to hang on to the gains made when NoW ceased publication.   The Sunday market is up 25,000 month on month but down 99,000 year on year. The Sunday market is down 70,000 on where it was before the News of the World closed suggesting that around 40,000 ex-NoW buyers are still active in the Sunday market.    

UK Daily Star Marketing Madness

One of the most amazing newspaper marketing decisions was made earlier this month and will be visible from October 17th. Express Newspapers have decided (aka Desmond has decided) that the UK version of the Daily Star will be available in Ireland from that Monday. It will sit alongside and compete with the Irish Daily Star in retail outlets. Express Newspapers own 50% of Independent Star Limited (ISL) publishers of the Irish Daily Star. I am at a complete loss as to the logic of this move. The only explanation would be that Desmond will rake in more from the UK versions on sales in the Republic than he would from the dividends from ISL. It’s nothing to do with boosting their circulation numbers as the Republic sales are already in the overall Daily Star figures.     The UK version is not going through Newspread (IN&M owned) not will it be printed on IN&M presses. Express Newspapers logic is based on the ‘success’ of the current version of the Sunday Daily Star. Since the Irish title closed earlier this year, it has been replaced but the UK Sunday Version (nothing to do with ISL) with all the proceeds going to Express Newspapers. But that success is only based on the closure of the News of the World. Up to the News of the World closure the paper sold about 28,000 copies every Sunday. Looking at it from another perspective it’s very much goes against the grain for the Joint venture between Express Newspapers and Independent News and Media. There are 110 people employed by ISL and...

Irish Newspaper Circulations August 2011

A very interesting, if not perplexing, batch of figures. Last month was the first without the News of The World and the signs were that buyers of that paper all found new homes – temporary shelter as it turned out. The News of the World in its last month (June) sold 113,000. The month is made no appearance the market was sown 33,000, suggesting that 80,000 had switched to another paper. It now look like that was very short lived. The Sunday Market in August was back over 50,000 copies, which is a massive month on month fall. Could it be that the ex-NoW readers turned to other publications on the first week and then abandoned them? My own theory is that the NoW was, in the main, a secondary purchase all along which was supplemented in the first week and abandoned as a bad idea in the second. Now most of the July beneficiaries of the closure still managed to hang on to a few copies they gained in August. But looking at this month it’s difficult to see them keeping them all. The Mirror and Star are still +8k ion the June figure, before the closure. The People up 2.5k but the Mail Sunday is below its pre closure figure by 1,500 copies. The Morning papers were probably going through a bit of a mid-summer slump with the three tabloids taking a bit of a knock on a month on month basis and most definitely on a year on year basis. In overall terms the market is down a staggering 137,000 year on year.

ABC Circulations Jan June 2011

The ABC Circulations for Jan June 2011 were released and make for fairly sobering reading. The circulation of National newspapers papers in the Republic of Ireland has declined by over 165,000 in twelve months. The biggest faller was in the Sunday market where there have been two newspaper closures in the year. Even stripping out those two titles, like for like sales of the remaining titles is still down 5%. Mornings are dwon 5% and the evening market continues its near two decade decline.   Market

Irish Sunday Newspaper Circulation Jan June 2011

If you wnated a headlin figure for this Jan June 2011 ABC's it would be the fact that the Sunday market slipped into six figures. It comes on the back of  the closure of the Sunday Tribune and the semi-closure (as the paper in another guise is still available) of the Daily Star on Sunday.   Actually it could be worse as the News of the World in real life is no longer around but still reported figures for those six months. But even with their final contribution the market is down 127,000 or 11%.   Publication

Irish Daily Newspaper Circulation Jan June 2011

The morning market declined by 5% year on year in 2011 (not too bad in comparison to the 11% fall in the Sunday Market) and sees it drop below the 600,000 mark. Just to ram home the recessionary point, the morning market hasn’t seen an increase in sales since 2007. Publication

Irish Evening Newspaper Circulation Jan June 2011

Just to be complete the Evening Market. There is no daily breakdown of the Heralds’ figure, so it's impossible to say how the addition of the Dubliner has worked for them.      Publication

Irish Newspaper Circulations May 2011

Without trying to detract from some of the increases – one has to keep in mind that April was a fairly appalling month for newspapers with Easter and Bank Holidays etc. Mornings first: The Sun came back out and increased by over 3,000 copies, actually all the tabloids saw an increase on the previous month. The rest of the papers only saw marginal increases month on month. Year on year The Mirror is still hanging on to a small lead whilst the Daily Star had decreased by some 9,000 copies and The Sun is back over 5,000. No bounce for the tabloids at all in this market. Sunday Market: The Sunday Daily Star figure speaks for itself, but there is no excuse for the New Of The World back (another) 1, 400 month on month and over 20,000 on the year (or about an estimated €.5m in circulation revenue). The Mail on Sunday is a big faller, back 11,000 on the month but still only down 4,000 on the year.

€1 Irish Independent

For the last two Mondays, the Irish Independent has dropped its price from the normal €1.90 to €1, practically half price. It’s a fairly drastic move and one that it would have been loath to do in the past leaving to price weapon to the Tabloids. Financial Times €2.30 Irish Times

Irish Newspaper Circulation March 2011

Get the latest circulation data here   No pretty formatting today as were are stranded with a laptop running the equivalent to Windows 3.1! But we’ll address that later. In the interest of speed and haste we have basic formatting but plenty of data. First things first. Congratulations to the Daily Star for putting on a few copies! That’s not a facetious remark. If you plan for an event like Cheltenham and it pays off – then you should be thrown a few bouquets. The other two tabloids in the morning managed to at least keep pace with the previous month. But year on year it looks still fairly grim. On to the Sundays where there are some very interesting figures and the primary on is the News of the World. Is it the news of the month? You can’t jettison 5,000 copies a month or 18,000 in a year on year basis without having the where with all to at least sit down see what you’re doing wrong/right. Should you finally consider ‘taking a leap of faith’. Does the Irish Newspaper buying populous at large actually care about Jordan. That’s the female as opposed to the Arab state, the later of which we have more interest in, I suspect. It’s been a savage few months for the NoW and perhaps its time to draw that line in the sand a say ‘it’s broken, lets fix it’

Irish Newspaper Circulations February 2011

February saw the introduction of “i”, the free stalemate of the London Independent. Now, should it be named “i-spy”. Having made the decision to print an edition in the north and ship it across the border every night you would think that it would be a little easier to find. Copies are like hens teeth! If you’re looking for ‘Irish News’ it’s not going to be between the covers there. But, if you wanted to perhaps supplement your daily read, you couldn't fault it.   Looking at the month on month firstly.  Taking into consideration that the comparative is January – the real looser (aside for the now closed Daily Star on Sunday) is the News of The World dropping over 4,000 in the month. The two morning tabloids Star and Sun also saw a decline of two to three thousand. The only papers that kept the gloss on the numbers were the Sunday Times and Mail on Sunday, both increases promotionally driven (not that there’s anything wrong with that).      Year on year continues the downward spiral. Again ignoring the Star on Sunday, the News of the World takes pole position in the negative territory down close to 12,000 year on year. New journalists, ex-premiers lurking in fridges doesn’t seem to be able to halt the decline. The Sunday People have, at this point, firmly established themselves in the teens. The Mirror and Sunday Mirror have a secret formula somewhere that the rest of the publishers would gladly covet. Maybe they have a bundle of papers in the attic growing older/getting smaller.

Irish Regional Newspaper Circulations July-December 2010

In the regional department only four paid titles managed to stay the right side of last years figure. In the main the local papers in and around the Leinster region seem to have faired out the worst (Callow People –22%, Leinster Leader –19% Fingal Independent – 15% etc). Each of the regional's will have their own unique story, unique to their particular area. Naturally there will be a element of the macro economics in that yarn, but there will also be a huge element of the micro economics in there as well. Local factory closure, by-passes etc – elements unique to a particular area but that could have a huge effect on one particular title. No point going line by line here (thank God). Like for like: these are papers that have been audited every year since 2007, 48 titles. Its the only comparative one can draw from these figures. Titles with no figures simple are not audited any longer and may not necessarily be closed.

Irish Morning Newspaper Circulations July-December 2010

Well, finally. The fast paced world of print has finally decided to publish figures. We can now reveal that the sale of the Irish Times in July 2010 was 98,847 copies a day. So, if you ran a campaign with that publication or any of the other laggards (in terms of publishing meaningful audited figures) you will now be able to see why its was a success or failure – eight months later. Publication

Irish Sunday Newspaper CirculationsJuly-December 2010

The Sunday market is where the recent focus has been with the closure of one paper and another in receivership. The Sunday Tribune (ST) didn’t file an ABC for the last half of 2010. There’s a cost involved there and perhaps the receiver felt that until another buyer was found (or not) the money would be better spent elsewhere. Anyway – the king is dead, long live the king and its an intriguing tale in the next tow paragraphs peppered with boxing analogies!    Sunday World (SW) mugged the Sunday Independent (SI)way back in 2007 and rightfully claimed the title “King of the Tabloids” and Broadsheets. By doing so became the top selling Sunday paper and, by default, also became the Top selling paper as well. I’d have to say that up to this point the fight between the pair had been relatively fair, relatively being the apt term. As both fight out of the same Indo corner, so the scrap was really never going to be let out of hand. By now, the deposed ruler has returned and claimed “number one” position shading the SW figure by just shy of 3,000 copies. Their marketing in this Sunday’s edition will proudly claim the indo as ‘Ireland’s top selling paper’. However, the judges should check for steroids and enhancing methods of fighting. The actively purchased figure for the SI is 243,001. The Sunday World don't deal in such alchemy and therefore have no bulks. Under the Queensbury Rules the Sunday World ‘actively’ outbox the SI by over 8,000. The crown sits shakily on the head of the indo but I can’t see the decision reversed as the referees...