The first month of the year yields little in the way of surprises, but does allow us a little in the way of reflection.
The figure that stands out is that the market is back 66,000 copies. That is, naturally the papers that publish monthly figures. We have to wait yet another week for the ‘on the pulse’ publications who will give us an average six month figure for July December 2009, nearly 50 days after the year end.
In the morning market the big drop was seen in The Sun losing 13,000 copies year on year with the major declines occurring in the last quarter helped nicely by the ‘vagaries of the Glass Palace’ a.k.a Dunnes Stores – but we’ve explored that before. Irish Daily Mail and Mirror slipped back too. Also excused from the commentary is the particularly laughable figure of the Daily Record and their sister publication the Sunday Mail. Other papers have large percentage declines – but coming form a low base anyway.
The News of the World also suffered dropping close to 7,000. The Mail on Sunday the biggest faller at over 10,600. In all that doom and gloom, you’d have to tip the hat at The Daily Star. In a market that’s back 8% they morning paper turned in a very respectable 95,000 down only a few copies year on year.
| Title | Jan-09 | Jan-10 | Diff | Diff % |
| Daily Mirror | 63,097 | 59,378 | -3,719 | -6% |
| Daily Record | 2,876 | 872 | -2,004 | -70% |
| Irish Daily Star | 95,471 | 94,957 | -514 | -1% |
| The Sun | 97,591 | 84,549 | -13,042 | -13% |
| Daily Express | 3,169 | 3,077 | -92 | -3% |
| Irish Daily Mail | 56,998 | 52,843 | -4,155 | -7% |
| The Daily Telegraph | 3,241 | 2,896 | -345 | -11% |
| Financial Times | 4,503 | 3,487 | -1,016 | -23% |
| The Guardian | 4,859 | 3,983 | -876 | -18% |
| The Independent | 2,272 | 1,195 | -1,077 | -47% |
| The Times | 3,060 | 2,478 | -582 | -19% |
| Morning Market | 337,137 | 309,715 | -27,422 | -8% |
| Daily Star – Sunday | 59,196 | 56,570 | -2,626 | -4% |
| News of the World | 133,026 | 126,482 | -6,544 | -5% |
| Sunday Mail | 8,898 | 2,633 | -6,265 | -70% |
| Sunday Mirror | 39,194 | 36,974 | -2,220 | -6% |
| The People | 25,434 | 21,798 | -3,636 | -14% |
| Sunday Express | 4,580 | 3,928 | -652 | -14% |
| Sunday Post | 880 | 795 | -85 | -10% |
| The Mail on Sunday | 122,693 | 112,011 | -10,682 | -9% |
| Independent on Sunday | 1,858 | 1,535 | -373 | -17% |
| The Observer | 10,830 | 8,847 | -1,983 | -18% |
| The Sunday Telegraph | 2,797 | 2,511 | -286 | -10% |
| The Sunday Times | 117,318 | 115,118 | -2,200 | -2% |
| Racing Post | 7,390 | 5,990 | -1,400 | -19% |
| Sunday Market | 534,094 | 495,515 | -38,579 | -7% |
| Total Market | 871,231 | 805,230 | -66,001 | -8% |
