Newspapers

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 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 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.

Irish Regional Newspapers Circulation Jan June 2011

Firstly, apologies for the “stat attack”, but there are 43 local papers audited so there really is no choice but to have plenty of data. Just by way of explanation: there two totals on the bottom of the chart. The first are “Year Totals”, they are simply the total of all the local papers audited that year. The more important figure is the like for like figures. They take the papers audited in 2011 and look back at those papers over the previous years so that we can make direct comparisons. So, looking at the Like for Like sales we see that the market declined by 10% year on year and 30% over a four year period.      Only two papers managed to increase their sales in the 12 months. They were the Roscommon Herald and the Enniscorthy Guardian increasing 9% and 6% respectively.  It should be noted that some of the papers who don’t have a figure haven’t necessarily ceased trading. There are eleven publications that have recorded declines in double digits. The worst performing is the Leinster Leader which dropped 20% in the twelve months and nearly half it’s circulation in four years.  

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

JNRS 2011

The JNRS results for the period July 2010 to June 2011 were released and if you thought circulations were poor then read on. Readership of Morning titles is down a decent 10% on the year and the Sundays are down 3% - showing a bit more loyalty for the Sundays than the Daily papers. Looks like few titles were spared the falls. The Independent suffered the biggest blow, down 11% and hovered on the precipice of half a million. In percentage terms the Examiner fell the furthest dropping 17% of its readership in the 12 months and its stalemate, the Sunday Business Post, is down 15% - the second highest faller of the papers. In the circulation market the tabloids are taking a beating but their readership seems to be holding steady according to these figures. The only comment on the magazines is that many of them have higher readership than their actual main jacket. The Heralds switch from the previous magazine, HQ. to The Dubliner seems to have worked as their Thursday offering is up 43,000 copies.

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.

Affiliate Links

I looked at this before when I thought some publications were being a little disingenuous about their affiliate policies. But, I am glad to see, that our friends at News International are being completely up front about selling their traffic. In an article on High street fashion the say Want to know where your favourite stars' frock is from? Fear not, every week we bring you the hottest celebrity looks from Britain's High Street - and you can click through to buy them online straightaway. You can click on any of the images which will, via what looks like affiliate links, whisk you off to the different retailers. I’m actually all for print recycling their information on line and garnering as much loose change as they can for their work – even it the links are done retrospectively. We’re about to have a change in television programming there sensitive and venerable viewers will have to be informed if a product(s) have been commercially placed. Should the same apply here? Probably not, as...

Coupons and Loyalty Schemes

I read with interest that yet more of the print industry is moving into to coupon/loyalty/butter-voucher arena. There has been huge interest in the web side of this business and recently highlighted when Groupon turned down a €6bln takeover bid from Google. Google, spurned, but not completely defeated, has now decided that it will go it alone based on its current advertising technology. Outside the ‘web discount’ systems Associated Newspapers are launching a loyalty discount scheme for the Mail On Sunday. It’s based on readers purchasing loyalty. In the UK if readers subscribe to the Saturday Mail and Sunday Mail on Sunday together they get redeemable vouchers for a variety of companies like Tesco and Pizza Express . It, like the Poll Tax, is being “tested” in Scotland first and will roll out to the rest of the dominion at a later stage – once William Wallace has given it his imprimatur presumably. The paper already has culture and (more importantly) a system in place for subscriptions in England and Scotland so it’s probably easy to dove-tail the loyalty scheme into the current subscription process. There is no mention of Ireland in the reward scheme, but that’s possibly because they don’t have a subscription scheme in place here. On the web coupon home front we have Groupon here, but branded under City Deal. Again offering discounts on a variety of events/services – but they only kick in when a certain number of people have committed to the deal (“Group” “Coupon” = Groupon). Not to be left behind IN+M are planning “GrabOne.ie” which...

€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 Circulations April 2011

This April was littered with Bank holidays and then a Bank holiday in May (not covered). But it normally leads to disruption, which in turn leads to lower newspaper purchasing. But his year seems to have bucked that trend as the market is up just shy of two thousand copies. Granted, it’s the promotion happy Sunday market that made most of the gains. The month on month for the tabloids can nearly all be explained by a bumper (pun intended) Cheltenham in March, so they are simply returning to the status quo. There is no weekly breakdown of the figures which, in this month is a pity. With a big wedding across the pond – no that nobody was going to watch! Indeed that’s why RTE One viewership at 12:43 was 247, 8000 people. I’d love to see what bounce the papers got out of the Wedding and moreover, I’d like to see who go the biggest spike in relative terms – although I have my suspicions. The Sundays is where the swings were. Its seems not that the Mail On Sunday and the Sunday Times are at this point trading blows. One goes up the other down. The Mail on Sunday put on 4,600 copies and The Sunday Times lost 3,000. The News of the World had a much needed “+” beside their numbers as they have had a spate of month on month declines but they are not alone there. Other than that there was nothing really news worthy, just minor ups and downs.

JNRS 2010

The latest figures for the readership for many of the Irish Newspapers were released today