Newspapers suffer summer dip

by John Reynolds, Media Week 09-Sep-08

LONDON - In what is usually a challenging month for publishers, all national newspapers suffered a drop in circulation year on year in August, with the Daily Express suffering a 9.5% year-on-year slump to 748,664 copies.

Although the Daily Express did not offer any promotions in August, and does not do bulk copy sales to bolster its circulation figure, the Northern & Shell title's fall was the second biggest of all daily UK newspapers. The Scotsman suffered the biggest year-on-year decline of all daily UK newspapers, down 10.4%.

Richard Desmond's Northern & Shell had further bad news, with the Daily Star Sunday circulation plummeting 24.3% year on year to 403,753 copies, while The Sunday Express circulation dropped 16.9% to 655,053 copies.

Paul Thomas, investment director at MindShare, said "the mid-market titles tend to suffer in August" because a significant proportion of its readership have families and will be on holiday in the month.

Rob Lynam, account director at Mediaedge:cia, pointed out that the Express titles had pulled back on promotional support and are "run on a tighter purse", adding that the lack of investment in the titles meant that "it is inevitable they will suffer more than other titles from falling circulation".

Meanwhile, News International's decision to up The Sun's cover price by 5p last month has not damaged sales, with the tabloid still increasing its circulation by 0.5% from July, to record 3.15 million copies.

Its sister title the News of the World increased its circulation month on month by 2.1% to register 3.25 million, lifted by a Tesco promotion offering customers £5 off that ran through the month.

"These promotions offer a direct and obvious benefit for the consumer and people will have bought the paper solely for the voucher," Lynam added.

The quality sector experienced a mixed August, with The Guardian (down 1.6% month on month), The Independent (down 2.2%) and the Financial Times (down 1.4%) all posting lower circulations in August than in July.

- 3.15m - The Sun's August circulation, up 0.5% from July, marking its 7th consecutive month of growth

- 24.3% - Year-on-year circulation decline for the Daily Star Sunday, the biggest drop of any Sunday newspaper

- 3.25m - August circulation for the News of the World, making it the biggest selling of all Sunday newspapers.