Every month, circulation falls by another small amount, but it’s only when you make a direct comparison to the previous year that one really sees the levels of decline. The market as a whole down 74,000 year on year. Sundays down 45,000 and the morning back 37,000.
In the mornings the Irish Daily Mail had a bad month down nearly 4,000 copies. It’s Sunday title also experienced a month on Month drop of 4,600. the buying public can the so fickle giving up on a publication when the promotions run out.
The tabloids should have had a much better month in March with the Cheltenham festival. Last March the tabloids were up over 3,000 in their February figure. This year they are back 300 copies collectively.
The tabloids historically have seen Cheltenham as one of the ‘bankers’ in their circulation year. Promotions are everywhere: fantasy racing, daily supplements, DVD’s, colour magazines and celebrity writers are all thrown at the market.
Historically all with a positive effect, but the rules may have been re-written this year.
The Sunday market is where a bit of the action was supposed to be in March. There was pots of ink used in January/February over the defection of Paul Williams to the News of The World. Worried bosses in Talbot Street quickly assembled the briefs and marched to the Golden Arches to prevent their star pupil leaving for their nearest rival.
Perhaps, on hindsight, they could have saves a few euros on that exercise. The Journalist was at his new desk in early march and for that first month the News of the World managed to lift circulation by 998 copies in the month.
There was a feeling that the defection would hurt the Sunday World’s circulation – which they alluded to in their High Court Affidavit. It was also felt that the News of the World circulation would benefit greatly – which doesn’t seem to be that case.
They put on copies, but probably not in numbers they expected hiring a journalist for a reported €250,000. Just to cover that cost they would want to be looking at adding about 6,000 copies a week to their figure (that’s a crude estimate, but it would be near that figure).
No doubt Paul will get the scoops he’s noted for in the coming months, but the expected sales certainly didn’t materialise in March.
Only 143 copies to go for The People…
| Title | Mar-10 | Feb-10 | M on M | Mar-09 | Y on Y |
| Daily Mirror | 60,072 | 59,293 | 779 | 65,296 | -5,224 |
| Daily Record | 756 | 893 | -137 | 3,302 | -2,546 |
| Irish Daily Star | 94,200 | 95,111 | -911 | 105,603 | -11,403 |
| The Sun | 86,598 | 86,872 | -274 | 99,386 | -12,788 |
| Daily Express | 2,926 | 2,988 | -62 | 3,247 | -321 |
| Irish Daily Mail | 49,271 | 53,235 | -3964 | 51,470 | -2,199 |
| The Daily Telegraph | 2,670 | 2,775 | -105 | 3,081 | -411 |
| Financial Times | 3,565 | 3,784 | -219 | 4,176 | -611 |
| The Guardian | 3,727 | 3,862 | -135 | 4,499 | -772 |
| The Independent | 1,081 | 1,088 | -7 | 1,877 | -796 |
| The Times | 2,549 | 2,492 | 57 | 2,835 | -286 |
| Morning Market | 307,415 | 312,393 | -4,978 | 344,772 | -37,357 |
| Daily Star – Sunday | 52,493 | 54,611 | -2118 | 61,221 | -8,728 |
| News of the World | 130,919 | 129,921 | 998 | 137,768 | -6,849 |
| Sunday Mail | 1,856 | 1,670 | 186 | 6,144 | -4,288 |
| Sunday Mirror | 36,448 | 36,752 | -304 | 40,497 | -4,049 |
| The People | 20,142 | 20,374 | -232 | 23,619 | -3,477 |
| Sunday Express | 3,904 | 4,016 | -112 | 4,604 | -700 |
| Sunday Post | 814 | 811 | 3 | 884 | -70 |
| The Mail on Sunday | 111,500 | 116,102 | -4602 | 107,519 | 3,981 |
| Independent on Sunday | 1,551 | 1,502 | 49 | 2,108 | -557 |
| The Observer | 8,193 | 8,608 | -415 | 10,956 | -2,763 |
| The Sunday Telegraph | 2,422 | 2,416 | 6 | 2,852 | -430 |
| The Sunday Times | 111,771 | 113,963 | -2192 | 119,575 | -7,804 |
| Sunday Market | 482,013 | 490,746 | -8733 | 527,199 | -45,186 |
| Racing Post | 8,754 | 6,726 | 2028 | 9,452 | -698 |
| Total Market | 798,182 | 809,865 | -11683 | 871,971 | -73,789 |
