Day: 20 August 2009

The “Island Of Ireland” report was released today charting the path of Irish Newspapers since the beginning of the year and comparing them to the same period in 2008. No prizes for guessing the outcome. First off I will have a look at the market overall, which as you can see, has dropped nearly 100,000 copies in the year or 4.6%. The Sunday market contributed for almost half of the decline and only one paper managed to increase its circulation (above a single % digit).

	2008		2009	Diff	Diff
	Jan-Jun		Jan-Jun	‘000	%
Total Sunday	1,237,709		1,182,595	-55,114	-4.4%
Total Morning	681,629		653,304	-40,382	-5.9%
Total Evening	105,276		95,379	-9,897	-9.4%
Total Market	2,024,614		1,931,278	-93,336	-4.6%

In percentage terms its the evening market that’s taking a pasting – but it’s not alone in any of the cities around the world that still have an evening edition. The market is now back to levels last seen a decade ago.  Revenue wise (and ignoring the odd cover price rise) the market is back €36m – now worth a total of aboyt €455m.

In the Sunday segment one of the only papers in the report to grow its circulation was the Sunday Business Post, so congratulations to them.

The rise can be attributed to a very strong start to the year, so perhaps an ‘r’ is good for a business newspaper. The Sunday Times also managed the bestgrowth of all papers in the report gaining a very healthy 11%. But, and not to rain too much on the parade, the last two months have not been at all kind to their figures, so it’s wait and see if they can hang on.

Looking at the percentages, I am not overly concerned with papers coming from a low base like the Independent on Sunday or Sunday Express as they tend to deflect from the bigger picture. The big looser over the year was the News of the World, lightening it’s load by some 20,000 copies, whilst still managing to sign a few ‘celeb’ sports writers in the period. They were the worst performers of all the papers. The Sunday World and the Sunday Independent also taking a bit of a hit 4% and 5% respectively. 

Notably the latter carries a bit of “padding” in circulation figures. Their level of “regular bulk sales” is nearly 18,000 copies every Sunday, most of which ending up being squeezed under hotel doors around the country. They are not the only paper carrying bulks, but few Sunday papers are at the 9% bulk level. Mail On Sunday jettisoned 9,000 copies year on year despite a large promotional spend.

	2008		2009	Diff	Diff
	Jan/June		Jan/June	‘000	%
Sunday Independent	283,024		272,174	-10,850	-4%
Sunday World	292,124		277,504	-14,620	-5%
Sunday Tribune	65,717		65,727	10	0%
Sunday Business Post	55,971		57,783	1,812	3%
IoS/Daily Mail	123,580		114,247	-9,333	-8%
Daily Star Sunday	61,376		59,691	-1,686	-3%
Irish News of the World	154,328		134,177	-20,151	-13%
Irish Sunday Mirror	43,147		40,219	-2,928	-6%
The People	28,546		24,593	-3,953	-12%
Sunday Times	105,690		116,770	11,080	11%
Sunday Express	6,447		4,683	-1,765	-24%
Independent.on Sunday	3,060		1,966	-1,094	-34%
The Observer	11,289		10,292	-997	-9%
Sunday Telegraph	3,410		2,771	-639	-18%
Total Sunday	1,237,709		1,182,595	-55,114	-4%

Market down 55,000 copies, back to 1998 numbers and shaved about €8m at the counter.

Finally, the beleaguered evening market, down another 10,000 copies  or 9% year on year. How long these losses are sustainable is beyond me. The Herald is now under serious downward pressure and certainly not helped by the proposed merger of the Healed AM and Metro into the “Hetro”. It will be interesting as IN&M own all of the Herald and will own 1/3 of the new company/freesheet – decisions , decisions.

	2008		2009	Diff	Diff
	Jan/June		Jan/June	‘000	%
Evening Herald	79,447		71,187	-8,260	-10%
Echo	25,829		24,192	-1,637	-6%
Total Evening	105,276		95,379	-9,897	-9%

The Herald moving ever closer to the swinging sixties (swinging axe!) the Echo is in the roaring twenties. The evening market is a thesis in its own right and would make a great one at that. Consider these pearls for example. The total market is now the same as the circulation of the Evening Herald, alone, in 2002. The market has been in decline formore than two decades and is plummeting towards … extinction? The chart is worth broadening to showing the slope since 1990 and the demise of the Evening Press is unmistakable on the chart.