June Figures: normally a strange time for the media with schools drawing to a close, the leaving cert commencing and the annual holiday migration.
The “hand of god” having dealt us a blow earlier in the year means that the World Cup would not drag up the circulations of any of the papers.
Big fallers month on month were the Daily Star, Sunday Star, News of the World and the Sunday Times. It’s likely that respective newspaper proprietors are praying that this is just the ‘summer slump’ – but the same May to June difference was not as severe last year (bar for the Sunday Times strangely enough). Actually, it’s the second biggest month on month decrease in 18 months – only surpassed by Nov/Dec last year – which is to be expected. So, perhaps a little more worrying than a ‘blip’.
We’ll see the full effect of the market next month the the moons in Jupiter align and the ‘indigenous papers’ deem it appropriate to furnish the world with their circulation figures. In August we will be able to see, for example, what the Irish Times was selling in January for the first time. Coupled with this are the Regional papers and the Magazines – all should make for interesting reading.
Quietly working away in the background are the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror who have put on 2,800 and 2,100 respectively since the beginning of the year, most likely at the expense of The Star(s). Actually they are the only papers putting on copies this year so they must be doing something right.
Year on Year is a bit of a blood bath, the market down 60,000 copies in the 12 months. The tabloids taking the brunt of that fall as the Sunday Mail and Times have not has a good year of it circulation wise.
Last month the Sunday People finally dipped through the 20’s and is continuing it chosen trajectory. At what point (if it’s not already passed) would the paper consider pulling the plug in this jurisdiction one can only speculate. It contributes 3.8% of the overall circulation of the Sunday People. It would strike you as being a particularly expensive 4%.
The News of the World pulled back on their marketing spend over the month and it certainly had an affect on the sales.
| Title | May ’10 | Jun ’10 | Jun ’09 | M-M | Y-Y |
| Daily Mirror | 61,419 | 62,190 | 63,639 | 771 | -1,449 |
| Daily Record | 786 | 769 | 2,229 | -17 | -1,460 |
| Irish Daily Star | 94,946 | 89,214 | 100,367 | -5,732 | -11,153 |
| The Sun | 86,597 | 85,600 | 95,153 | -997 | -9,553 |
| Daily Express | 2,934 | 3,004 | 3,460 | 70 | -456 |
| Irish Daily Mail | 49,654 | 48,548 | 48,144 | -1,106 | 404 |
| The Daily Telegraph | 2,963 | 3,050 | 3,276 | 87 | -226 |
| Financial Times | 4,067 | 3,426 | 3,708 | -641 | -282 |
| The Guardian | 3,810 | 3,766 | 4,222 | -44 | -456 |
| The Independent | 1,171 | 1,181 | 1,572 | 10 | -391 |
| The Times | 2,601 | 2,622 | 2,934 | 21 | -312 |
| Morning Market | 310,948 | 303,370 | 328,704 | -7,578 | -25,334 |
| Daily Star – Sunday | 58,464 | 52,593 | 56,157 | -5,871 | -3,564 |
| News of the World | 134,716 | 126,092 | 136,400 | -8,624 | -10,308 |
| Sunday Mail | 1,809 | 1,763 | 6,718 | -46 | -4,955 |
| Sunday Mirror | 38,693 | 39,140 | 39,630 | 447 | -490 |
| The People | 19,946 | 18,981 | 22,874 | -965 | -3,893 |
| Sunday Express | 3,786 | 3,989 | 4,700 | 203 | -711 |
| Sunday Post | 790 | 784 | 861 | -6 | -77 |
| The Mail on Sunday | 109,405 | 113,638 | 117,418 | 4,233 | -3,780 |
| Independent on Sunday | 1,525 | 1,539 | 1,572 | 14 | -33 |
| The Observer | 7,766 | 7,591 | 9,417 | -175 | -1,826 |
| The Sunday Telegraph | 2,375 | 2,511 | 2,726 | 136 | -215 |
| The Sunday Times | 113,764 | 105,608 | 110,631 | -8,156 | -5,023 |
| Sunday Market | 493,039 | 474,229 | 509,104 | -18,810 | -34,875 |
| Racing Post | 6,418 | 6,581 | 7,850 | 163 | -1,269 |
| Total Market | 803,987 | 777,599 | 837,808 | -26,388 | -60,209 |