Well, the party (or wake) is truly over. The gains some of the titles made when the NotW closed last July were well and truly wiped out this month with a full month figure for The Sun (on Sunday).
The Sun (on Sunday) fell back to 81,000 from its maiden figure of 109,000, which was to be expected. But the buyers have to come from somewhere and they were kindly donated by Sunday Mirror, The Daily Star on Sunday and The People – the very papers that made gains at the NotW closure – to be biblical about it – Job 1:21!
The Sunday Mirror is, this month, below its figure pre NotW closure, having lost 14,598 copies month on month. The Sunday People is now at a record low of 17,613 and the Daily Star on Sunday is still a few thousand copies off its June 2011 figure but down 8,000 month on month.
Outside the Sunday tabloids – the status quo was more or less maintained. The Sunday market is down nearly 53,000 month on month which implies that more people have left the Sunday market even with the introduction of The Sun (on Sunday) as illustrated by the graph below. The market is still 54,000 below where it was pre closure.
The Sun (on Sunday) is still 32,000 behind where the NotW was this time last year. They are not the same product and so it’s difficult to draw a straight comparison, but it’s just illustrating the gap.
In the mornings the Tabloids have a decent March – most likely due to GAA, Rugby and most defiantly Cheltenham. The Racing Post also gained 1,600 month on month but was marginally behind last year’s figure.
The Daily Mail gained 2,462 month on month but looking at the certificates you couldn’t help but notice that they had increased their ‘bulks’ this month (1,300 in Feb as opposed to 4,200 in March). There’s probably a promotional reason for the increase and we’ll cast an eye on in next month to see what’s happening there.
The morning market is up 4,700 month on month but down nearly 20,000 year on year.
| Title | Mar-12 | Feb-12 | Mar-11 | MoM | YoY |
| Daily Mirror | 57,290 | 58,114 | 61,071 | -824 | -3,781 |
| Daily Record | 616 | 632 | 699 | -16 | -83 |
| Irish Daily Star | 78,818 | 76,514 | 89,034 | 2,304 | -10,216 |
| The Sun | 72,783 | 71,576 | 79,770 | 1,207 | -6,987 |
| Daily Express | 2,812 | 2,825 | 2,807 | -13 | 5 |
| Irish Daily Mail | 51,964 | 49,502 | 49,132 | 2,462 | 2,832 |
| The Daily Telegraph | 2,757 | 2,815 | 2,809 | -58 | -52 |
| Financial Times | 3,121 | 3,369 | 3,625 | -248 | -504 |
| The Guardian | 3,229 | 3,277 | 3,638 | -48 | -409 |
| i | 515 | 515 | 679 | 0 | -164 |
| The Independent | 849 | 813 | 932 | 36 | -83 |
| The Times | 2,071 | 2,085 | 2,243 | -14 | -172 |
| Morning Market | 276,825 | 272,037 | 296,439 | 4,788 | -19,614 |
| Daily Star – Sunday | 26,437 | 34,386 | 28,307 | -7,949 | -1,870 |
| The Sun/NotW | 81,165 | 109,450 | 112,914 | -28,285 | -31,749 |
| Sunday Mail | 1,206 | 1,360 | 1,545 | -154 | -339 |
| Sunday Mirror | 42,414 | 57,012 | 39,716 | -14,598 | 2,698 |
| The People | 17,613 | 24,803 | 18,031 | -7,190 | -418 |
| Sunday Express | 3,434 | 3,643 | 3,869 | -209 | -435 |
| Sunday Post | 694 | 724 | 761 | -30 | -67 |
| The Mail on Sunday | 110,082 | 109,042 | 111,690 | 1,040 | -1,608 |
| Independent on Sunday | 1,305 | 1,331 | 1,340 | -26 | -35 |
| The Observer | 6,385 | 6,551 | 7,340 | -166 | -955 |
| The Sunday Telegraph | 2,642 | 2,879 | 2,638 | -237 | 4 |
| The Sunday Times | 107,025 | 108,599 | 114,225 | -1,574 | -7,200 |
| Sunday Market | 400,402 | 459,780 | 414,069 | -59,378 | -13,667 |
| Racing Post | 7,049 | 5,374 | 7,420 | 1,675 | -371 |
| Total Market | 684,276 | 737,191 | 717,928 | -52,915 | -33,652 |