This month sees The Sun and The Daily Star dip below the sixty marks and the Mirror roots itself solidly into the forties. I’ve never made any bones about it – but I’m a huge fan of tabloids, but by no means a tabloid apologist when they over step the mark – as they have on numerous occasions.
The dip this month is particularly worrying for that group of papers. I appreciate dropping below sixty is purely psychological, but it has the ability to affect people within a struggling news brand. Selling a publication with a circulation of (say) 61,000 is marginally easier than selling one with a circulation of 59,000! The three tabloids are down 14,000 on the year an there seems to be no letup in the pace of their decline. Furthermore, I’d suggest that there no real fall-back for them – the tabloid reader doesn’t do digital as seen in the numerous NRS surveys in the UK.
The Sunday tabloids were not bullet proof either. The Daily Star Sunday is now at 19,000, the Sunday Mirror falls to 34,700 and The People is now at 13,000. The Sunday Times struggled again this month with a decline of 3,500 on the month dropping them to 86,000, a 4% decline on the month.
Fairly bleak reading and best captured in the tables and graphs below.
| Title | Jun-14 | Jun-13 | May-14 | Y/Y | M/M | % Ch Y/Y |
| Daily Mirror | 47,704 | 53,364 | 49,465 | -5,660 | -1,761 | -10.6% |
| Daily Record | 417 | 480 | 418 | -63 | -1 | -13.1% |
| Irish Daily Star | 59,753 | 64,485 | 61,231 | -4,732 | -1,478 | -7.3% |
| The Sun | 59,200 | 63,743 | 61,149 | -4,543 | -1,949 | -7.1% |
| 167,074 | 182,072 | 172,263 | -14,998 | -5,189 | -8.2% | |
| Daily Express | 2,826 | 2,920 | 2,764 | -94 | 62 | -3.2% |
| Irish Daily Mail | 51,714 | 51,520 | 50,231 | 194 | 1,483 | 0.4% |
| The Daily Telegraph | 2,761 | 2,883 | 2,708 | -122 | 53 | -4.2% |
| Financial Times | 2,333 | 2,586 | 2,457 | -253 | -124 | -9.8% |
| The Guardian | 2,717 | 3,033 | 2,752 | -316 | -35 | -10.4% |
| i | ||||||
| The Independent | ||||||
| The Times | 2,259 | 2,143 | 2,257 | 116 | 2 | 5.4% |
| Morning Market | 231,684 | 248,034 | 235,432 | -15,473 | -3,748 | -6.2% |
| Daily Star – Sunday | 19,847 | 22,624 | 19,709 | -2,777 | 138 | -12.3% |
| The Sun/NotW | 54,822 | 57,385 | 56,379 | -2,563 | -1,557 | -4.5% |
| Sunday Mail | 869 | 974 | 856 | -105 | 13 | -10.8% |
| Sunday Mirror | 34,763 | 39,093 | 35,394 | -4,330 | -631 | -11.1% |
| The People | 13,313 | 15,971 | 12,918 | -2,658 | 395 | -16.6% |
| Sunday Express | 3,527 | 3,591 | 3,332 | -64 | 195 | -1.8% |
| Sunday Post | 517 | 591 | 531 | -74 | -14 | -12.5% |
| The Mail on Sunday | 100,040 | 102,236 | 100,052 | -2,196 | -12 | -2.1% |
| Independent on Sunday | ||||||
| The Observer | 5,140 | 5,678 | 5,307 | -538 | -167 | -9.5% |
| The Sunday Telegraph | 2,534 | 2,807 | 2,489 | -273 | 45 | -9.7% |
| The Sunday Times | 86,590 | 92,817 | 90,146 | -6,227 | -3,556 | -6.7% |
| Sunday Market | 321,962 | 343,767 | 333,535 | -21,805 | -5,151 | -6.3% |
| Racing Post | ||||||
| Total Market | 553,646 | 591,801 | 506,272 | -37,278 | -8,899 | -6.3% |
