The monthly release of print sales figures by the Audit Bureau of Circulations used to be a focal point of interest. Now eyes are averted. The details pass without comment.
Why? Because they confirm an old, old story. As everyone knows, fewer and fewer people are buying newspapers. Sales are going down. Tell us something new.
There’s a challenge. So let’s explore the latest set of ABC statistics for the national daily and Sunday titles, covering the month of October, to see what we can find.
The first fact to notice is the widespread use of bulks, those copies sold at less than cover price so that they can be given away free at airports, railway stations and hotels.
Several publishers, such as News UK, are relying on them once __more after eschewing their use in years past. It makes like-for-like comparisons difficult, so I have deducted bulks from the headline figures.
We can then see that the Times has closed to within 73,000 sales of the Daily Telegraph. While the former has been winning buyers month by month, the latter has been losing them, and at a greater rate.
If those trends at both titles continue then the obvious outcome will be the Times surpassing the Telegraph sometime within the next two years.
The outlook for the Guardian, over the same time period, is worrying if it continues to lose 5% year-on-year. But, like the Financial Times, it has long been planning for a digital-only future. (And please don’t read into this that I know anything about the paper’s plans).
One of the __more fascinating up-and-down races is that between the Daily Mail and the Sun. The gap between them has narrowed over the years and is now standing at 140,003.
Again, it is possible to imagine the Mail assuming the circulation leadership at some stage. Rupert Murdoch will surely strive to stop that happening, but the wind is behind the Mail, is it not?
Similarly, the struggle between the Sun on Sunday and the Mail on Sunday is one to watch, and the margin between them, 89,621, is smaller still. That could well be the first blow to News UK’s sales supremacy.
Meanwhile, the two Express titles are leaking copies without any sign of a turnaround in their fortunes. If Richard Desmond doesn’t find a buyer soon, there will be nothing to sell (in spite of his cut-price Stars enjoying little uplifts).
That said, Trinity Mirror’s stable is anything but healthy. The two Sunday titles are suffering from the largest falls of all. As for the Daily Mirror, it just cannot escape from its downward spiral in spite, it should be said, of often producing good issues.
I can’t finish without noting the success of the Observer in reaching what appears to be a circulation plateau. That is some achievement in the current market, especially with the Sunday Times maintaining its dominance.
Who is up... and who is down?
Headline sales; (bulks); =total without bulks; year-on-year percentage differences
THE DAILIES
Daily Telegraph 456,999 (20,901) =436,098 -3.79%
The Times 437,352 (74,060) =363,292 +10.94%
i 278,843 (68,501) =210,342 +1.53%
Financial Times 194,152 (21,562) =172,590 -7.16%
Guardian 157,778 -5.5%
Daily Mail 1,510,824 (73,882) =1,436,942 -5.2%
Daily Express 397,236 -3.4%
The Sun 1,672,217 (95,272) =1,576,945 -7.38%
Daily Mirror 756,142 (45,000) =711,142 -10.17%
Daily Star 462,306 +7%
THE SUNDAYS
Sunday Times 781,237 (75,992) =705,245 +1.96 %
Sunday Telegraph 364,785 (24,913) = 339,872 +0.77%
The Observer 188,65 -0.17%
Mail on Sunday 1,315,977 (66,602) =1,249,375 -6.44%
Sunday Express 349,220 -3.48%
Sun on Sunday 1,437,208 (98,212) =1,338,996 -5.09%
Sunday People 263,011 (7,000) =256,011 -12.72%
Sunday Mirror 680,497 (45,000) =635,497 -15.03%
Daily Star, Sunday 274,796 +1.43%