November ABC Irish Newspaper circulations 2013

A fairly grim month for the Tabloids, again. Whatever it was about the month all the titles suffered. The Sun back nearly 3,400 copies (about 5%) and The Daily Star recording a 1,600 drop. The Mirror was the surprise of the month adding 1,800 to its numbers.

Collectively the tabloids were down nearly 3,000 copies – and history shows that it won’t get any better next month. The Sun is currently perilously close to a drop into the physiological bad lands of sub 60,000 copies– something their sales force would prefer not to see. 

All the Sunday tabloids were in a similar position dropping month on month – the biggest faller being the Sunday Mirror followed by the Daily Star on Sunday. Again, something positive to report with the Mail on Sunday adding 1,200 to their figure.

The total market is back 10,000 month on month and a hefty 48,000 on the year. Are there any signs of arresting this interminable decline? The charts below show how the market has fared since ’09. Badly.

The ‘positive’ (if you were taking to clutching at straws) is that the rate of decline is definitely slowing, but it’s still the wrong side of zero. It’s cold comfort for an industry that has suffered badly and one where the future is positively not in print. Having said that some publications seem to be only be coming to terms with this fact this and it might be too late for them.