The Guardian circulation drops for third month running

by Jennifer Whitehead,, Brand Republic 10-Sep-04, 14:30

LONDON - The Guardian has seen its circulation drop for the third month running, losing 1.8%, to have an average circulation of 364,504 copies a day in August.

Only The Daily Telegraph and The Independent managed to show increases among the London-based UK quality dailies.

The Telegraph added 0.8% to bring its circulation to 912,334 and The Independent was up by 0.2% to 262,588, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Further bad news came for Guardian Media Group with The Observer the only Sunday broadsheet to see a decline. Its circulation fell by 2.3% to 431,182. The Independent on Sunday saw the biggest rise, up 4.6% to 218,593, while the Sunday Telegraph was up 2.2% to 706,910 and the Sunday Times rose 1.6% to 1,325,357 copies.

August proved a good month for both the weekday Express and its Sunday sister, which managed to gain some ground against arch-rival the Daily Mail.

The Daily Express saw circulation rise 2.3% to 960,710, although it still has some way to go before it catches the Daily Mail, which was down 0.5% to 2,407,082. The Sunday Express added 6.7% to push it back over the 1m mark, with a circulation of 1,052,069, while the Mail on Sunday fell back 3% to 2,339,656.

There was little movement in the circulation figures for the red-top tabloids, with the Daily Mirror up 0.2% to 1,821,206 and The Sun down 0.4% to 3,363,712.

In Scotland, the transformation of The Scotsman to a tabloid from Monday to Friday saw its circulation leap by 11.4% to 72,506.

Despite its rise, its rival the Herald strengthened its lead, up 4.81% to 80,239.

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