Day: 19 August 2010

And Finally…. The much awaited ‘Island Of Ireland Report finally made it to daylight. And its as expected, it’s unpleasant reading. Below are the topline for the main markets. The Sundays took the brunt of the blow, suffering a 61,000 decline from the period Jan-June ‘09 to Jan-June ‘10. To put that in context: that’s the single largest yearly drop looking back to 2000. The Mornings also lost out by 46,000 or 7%. And, again, a little bit of history there as its the largest percentage decline in the morning market since 2000. The Evenings? Should really be a “copy and paste” from last year – more of the same.

Market	Jan June 2009	Jan June 2010	Diff ‘000	Diff %
Total Sunday	1,182,252	1,120,808	-61,444	-5%
Total Morning	651,701	605,359	-46,342	-7%
Total Evening	95,379	89,945	-5,434	-6%
Total Market	1,929,332	1,816,112	-113,220	-6%

The Sundays had mixed fortunes. For the papers that have their finger on the pulse and not elsewhere and who actually publish timely circulation numbers on a monthly basis, their plight is well documented. In the market four papers have circulations of under 10,000 and therefore throw up large percentage swings, so we’re not going to dwell on them too much on them.  #

The biggest fallers in the market were the Sunday Tribune (-11,327), the Sunday World (-10,374) and the Sunday Business Post (8,146).  Perhaps theses papers are suffering from people dropping a second or, indeed a third paper for their Sunday newspaper arsenal.

The Tabloids (red top’s) although back nearly 25,000 copies collectively only account for 40% of the Sunday market decline. Another 40% can be attributed to the SBP, Sunday Tribune (which we will return to) and Sunday Independent. In the Redtops the Sunday World dropped over 10,000 copies – which is less than previous annual falls it should be said. Their circulation number is an amalgam of the Southern Edition of the paper and their Northern Edition.

Looking a bit deeper, it’s the southern edition that accounts for most of the fall, the northern edition only loosing 850 copies. There is/was an argument that the north’s economic woes were gently lessened by the massively high numbers there employed in the civil service (part of the peace dividend) and, therefore, newspapers there are not experiencing the same declines as those in the south. Its is a very ‘plausible’ argument as the larger papers in the North have held their ground year on year. Combined, the N.I. market (morning and Sunday combined) only dropped by 2% year on year.

The Sunday Times lost nearly 5,000 copies only to fly i the face of the recently released JNRS which suggested that they added 50,000 readers (readers, not copy sales) – so that’s something for the statisticians to chew on. Actually their 12 months to June 2010 compared to 12 months to ‘June ‘09 are practically identical at roughly 113,000 copies! Without going thorough each of the figures individually and risking people glazing over, there are only two other points: Firstly the level of bulks:

These range from 0% in some cases to a particularly hefty 20% in others. Secondly, a certain level of bulks (or copies sold below basic cover price) are always going to occur – but at 1/5 of your circulation, surely its taking the proverbial a little: The Sunday Tribune’s actual sales at full cover price were 43,321 JJ ‘10 compared to 56,740 the same period last year. Last year 86.3% of their circulation was at full rate. This year its 79.7%.

Publication	Jan June 2009	Jan June 2010	Diff ‘000	Diff %
Sunday Independent	272,174	265,455	-6,719	-2%
Sunday World	277,504	267,130	-10,374	-4%
Sunday Tribune	65,727	54,400	-11,327	-17%
Sunday Business Post	57,783	49,637	-8,146	-14%
Daily Star Sunday	59,347	54,224	-5,123	-9%
Irish News of the World	134,177	131,410	-2,767	-2%
Irish Sunday Mirror	40,219	37,252	-2,967	-7%
The People	24,593	20,303	-4,290	-17%
Sunday Express	4,683	3,949	-734	-16%
Irish Mail on Sunday	114,247	112,897	-1,350	-1%
Independent.on Sunday	1,966	1,639	-327	-17%
The Observer	10,292	8,169	-2,123	-21%
Sunday Telegraph	2,771	2,451	-320	-12%
Sunday Times	116,770	111,892	-4,878	-4%
Total	1,182,252	1,120,808	-61,444	-5%

In numerical terms not the same drop as the Sundays but in percentage terms is severe. Even looking back as far as the millennium you wont see the same percentage decline. The Tabloids, like the Sunday market have been in decline for many months – seeming feeling the effects of the ‘R’ worse than others.

The Irish Times dropped 8% to 105,000, again for them it’s the single biggest y.o.y. decline since 2000 (only looking back that far). That has to be a bit worrying for Tara St given the investment they have made in the title of late. The Irish Independent is down 7,000 or 5% and the decline is all ‘natural’ with their level of bulks at a constant 13% each year.

The compact/broadsheet divide is a difficult one. The papers regular bulks figure consists mainly of the compact variety. So looking at the 128,000 odd papers that are non bulks for the I.I. the split is about 60/40 in favour of the compact.

The Tabloids have all different stories. The Sun is suffering at the vagaries of the retail chain holed up in the glass palace in Stephen Street and that hasn’t helped in a poor year. The other tabloids are suffering with the economy.

Publication	Jan June 2009	Jan June 2010	Diff ‘000	Diff %
Irish Independent	152,204	144,896	-7,308	-5%
Irish Times	114,488	105,742	-8,746	-8%
Examiner	50,346	46,687	-3,659	-7%
Daily Mirror	64,525	60,418	-4,107	-6%
Irish Daily Star	101,277	93,630	-7,647	-8%
The Sun	96,683	86,453	-10,230	-11%
Daily Express	3,259	2,971	-288	-9%
Irish Daily Mail	52,227	50,515	-1,712	-3%
Daily Telegraph	3,188	2,872	-316	-10%
Financial Times	4,152	3,653	-499	-12%
Guardian	4,524	3,818	-706	-16%
The Independent	1,904	1,143	-761	-40%
The Times	2,924	2,561	-363	-12%
Total	651,701	605,359	-46,342	-7%

It’s a waste of pixels, but it has to be done.

Publication	Jan June 2009	Jan June 2010	Diff ‘000	Diff %
Evening Herald	71,187	67,657	-3,530	-5%
Echo	24,192	22,288	-1,904	-8%
Total	95,379	89,945	-5,434	-6%

More of the same. The only item of note is with regard to the “Dubliner” wrapped up inside the Herald on a Thursday. Introduced in April, the paper’s circulation that month did increase – but that was down to bulks – or sampling – or whatever badge you want to stick on it. The following month the single copy sales were up on April, but fell back again in June. Really, when academic year begins again in September/October, that will be an acid test.