Day: 12 May 2010

To begin on a positive note* not in the last 18 months have we seen such an increase in the morning market – up a hefty 7,700 copies. Albeit mainly on the back of the Daily Star – but still!

The Sun picked up a bit as well and both tabloids could attribute the return of decent sporting events a welcome boost to their sales. Still, reflecting on the previous year, the three (four) tabloids are back nearly 20,000 copies.

Turning to the Sunday market the obvious eye sour this month is the Mail on Sunday. Since the beginning of the year they had been sitting (if not somewhat erratically) above the 110,000 watershed. This month they dropped by over 10,000 copies. Is it that the Mail on Sunday is particularly susceptible to the uncertainties of the summer months? It’s something to keep an eye on for the next few months. 

Overall the market actually added 2,000 – but still back nearly 52,000 year on year. 

* Its feared that its the only bit of good news that will be flowing over the next week. The circulation figures for the other ‘Irish Papers” (aka the papers that don’t get their finger out in the information age and provide monthly ABC figures) are published on Thursday 19th. The bucket of warm water and cloth are at the ready to clean the blood off the walls.

Perhaps, for certain publications, we may have been a tad hasty in the comments for April’s figures. Or indeed it may just show the fickle nature of the newspaper buying public.

The morning market was up marginally mainly due to the tabloids. The end of the Premiership, start of the GAA and the playoffs for the Heineken Cup all contributing to the copy sales. But they are no where near their levels from 2009 with the market down nearly 28,000.

The Sunday market: many of the copies found by the News of the World last month drifted away this month – the paper loosing nearly 6,000 copies in the month after gaining 9,400 the previous month. The Sunday Daily Star had a good month putting on 7,800 papers and the Sunday Mirror gaining 3,000 copies. The Mail on Sunday lost 5,000 in the month.

All of the above gains (with perhaps the exception of the NoW) were in the main down to newspapers promotions. One would have to question the benefit of putting a large amount of work into getting a CD on cover, getting say, 5,000 copies and then for it all to evaporate the following month.   

Papers engaging in this sporadic promotional activity have massive swings in their circulation. The difference between high and low of the NoW since January is nearly 14,000 copies, Mail on Sunday 6,600 and Sunday Daily Star 7,800. It only goes to demonstrate how buyers/readers can ebb and flow out of the Newspaper Market.