As predicted, the tabloids slipped back after the euphoria of the start of the premiership abated in September. All the tabloids lost their August lustre and now it’s simply a slow decline to the “C” word on the 25th of December. The Star and Sun are now perilously close to the slipping into the 50’s. Both papers tested those waters briefly earlier in the year only to be saved by the kick of a ball
I had to double take on these sets of results – so used to the doom and gloom at follows the monthly figures like a bad smell that there was a modicum of disbelief and a measure of self-doubt about my ability to use a spreadsheet. But, no they are the real deal. In August, ever paper under scrutiny, made month on month gains bar the FT and the Mail on Sunday. I couldn’t recall
“Ta-da” – the cosmetic adverts catchphrase. I use it mockingly as it heralds the publication, finally, of the ABC’s of the reaming newspapers in the market. Plenty of cosmetics would be needed to make these figures even vaguely attractive. The total market contacted by 7% over a twelve month period. The market is still 204m newspapers a year, but falling at 7% per annum isn’t a sustainable business model. The morning market is falling faster
Most of the morning tabloids had a bit of a mini-rally with The Sun and The Mirror gaining month on month. However the Daily Star didn’t figure in the ‘surge’ dropping 150 copies and its first place spot among the redtops as well. The Daily Mail reports a drop of over 6,000 on the month (-13%) which is a fairly sizeable decrease in a calendar month but much of that could be down to a
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
Nothing spectacular happened in May – the end of the premier league and the beginning of the Football and Hurling championship (and therefore order being resorted to the world!). The ABC’s were equally less than spectacular and continued along the same lines as normal. The Daily Mirror stepped into dangerous territory, dropping below the 50k mark. It had dipped there before in December, but that’s allowed given the season etc.The Daily Star managed to keep
April was a very busy month with a few big sporting events and Easter and all that it brings. Easter is not the kindest for newspapers with the daily papers opting to exclude the 18th and 21st (Good Friday and Easter Monday) from their month’s total and the Sundays opting to exclude the 20th. The tabloids would have been helped with Aintree and, to a lesser extent, the National League Final. The Daily Star added
March brings a bit of good news for the tabloids in the form of Cheltenham, which always manages to lift sales for them. However going on the past, this boost will be short-lived and April will bring a dose of reality to a beleaguered market. The big winner this month was the Daily Star gaining close to 2,000 copies and it looks like it was at the expense of the Daily Mirror, who had a
The lift the papers got in January is well gone now and some of the publications dripped significantly. The Mirror dropped 2,900 copies (-5% on the month) leaving it at just over 51,000. The Irish Daily Star now at 61,000 whilst The Sun is down to 60,000 – down 7% on the year, The Star down 9%. The Morning are down 18,000 year on year and 8,000 on the month. In the Sundays, the
With all the data we received yesterday, we nearly overlooked the readership data via the JNRS. It’s unfortunate (or otherwise) that they use the release date for the Island of Ireland report to also release the findings of the readership survey. The survey is conducted face to face with 7,000 adults annually and questions them on their newspaper reading habits, both the physical product and online. It’s counterpart in the UK (NRS) takes a slightly
The Sunday Market, like the morning, dropped 6% year on year, down 54,000 to 811,000. Unlike the morning market where there was a somewhat consistency to the declines the papers in the Sunday Market had very mixed fortunes. If falling circulation still manages to get you the title of ‘best performer’, then the Sunday Independent deserves that accolade. It only dropped 3% year on year and all other titles in the market declined by greater
Morning Market: The first point of reference is that the morning market has fallen below 500k for the first time and, as can see from the various charts accompanying the post, there is no sign of any reversal of fortunes. The big fallers year on year are the Red Tops who collectively are down 8%. The Sun and The Daily Star slug it out for worst performers in the Morning market title, watched on closely
January, thankfully, showed a change in the outlooks of the tabloids, most notably the Daily Mirror bouncing back some 7,000 copies on its December figure and the Sun followed suit gaining nearly 3,000. Still the year on year figure is bleak down between 5% and 9% – the latter percent being the Irish Daily Star. All the papers got a lift for the New Year bar the Observer – which it should be noted is
December is always a bad month for sales and this year is no different. The tabloids took a beating last month dropping 10,000 over the month. The big faller was The Mirror leaving 5,600 behind on November. The Sun fell into the 50’s pit for the first time and The Daily Star hung on by a very narrow 400 copies. With the inclement weather we had last month, I can’t expect that these figures will
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
The October ABC’s were released earlier today and show a continued decline of newspaper sales, for those that produce a monthly figure anyway. As a group the tabloids are still taking a beating, down 21,000 year on year and close to 4,000 month on month with The Daily Mirror contributing nearly half of that drop. The Daily Mail is down just shy of 3,000 on the month with the morning market down 7,500 on the
Just to recap – there are two distinct ABC reports – a monthly report, in which twelve morning newspapers available in Ireland subscribe to and equally twelve of the Sunday’s provide data for. Three mornings and three Sundays only provide data on a six monthly basis to complete the lofty sounding ‘Island of Ireland’ report, a report which is given acres of space in print and way too much weight – and I stand guilty
For the tabloids, August with the start of the premier league couldn’t have come quick enough. A large group of soccer supporters seemingly regained their interest in tabloids this month and in the mix there are probably a scattering of GAA supporters too, loyal to the true faith and not concerned with the ‘foreign game’ at all! Two big GAA games in August both featuring the metropolitans would have to have definitely added a few
The Sunday newspaper market dropped 9% or 81,000 copies compared to Jan June 2012. Similar to the morning market the tabloids have taken the brunt of that decline having fallen about 40% since 2005 whereas the non-tabloids have dropped about half of that in the same period. The Sunday Independent remains the market leader selling 232,000 every Sunday. It dropped 3% on the same period last year and given that the market dipped 9% it,
The morning market figures show declines across the board but in varying degrees. The total market is down 7%, or a few copies shy of 40,000 in comparison to the same six months in 2013. The biggest faller was The Daily Star which lost 11% (8,500) of its circulation. The Financial Times also lost 13% but it’s coming from a very low base in the first place. In the other tabloids The Sun fell
