Daily Record makes gains on Sun in Scotland

by Fiona Ramsay, Media Week 11-Jan-08, 15:50

LONDON - For the third successive month, the Scottish Daily Record, combined with the Free PM edition of the Daily Record, has reduced the sales gap against the 20p Sun in Scotland.

December ABC figures show the gap to be down to 7,898 copies - an improvement of 10,328 copies on the previous month. In November, the gap was 18,226 copies.

In terms of Scottish sales, year-on-year performance for the Daily Record declined by 5.4%. Month-on-month the title dipped by 0.9%. But The Sun in Scotland has lost 6.5% of its sales in December 2007, compared to the same month in 2006 when the paper's cover price was 10p.

Sales in Scotland of the paid-for Daily Record closed the gap on the cut-price 20p Sun by a further 10,414 on the previous month. The paid-for gap now stands at 26,330, compared to 36,744 in November.

The main national paid-for morning edition of the Daily Record recorded circulation of 363,329 in Scotland in December, compared to the Scottish Sun's 389,659.

Free PM, distributed in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee, reported an ABC figure of 18,432, down 0.46% month on month.

Mark Hollinshead, managing director of the Scottish Daily Record and Sunday Mail Ltd, said: "Readers who pay full price for their newspapers are more loyal and responsive to advertisers than promiscuous readers who are attracted by price discounting."

The Sun had not returned Media Week's calls by the time of publication.