Indy sales dip for first time this year

The Independent ‘s run of 10 consecutive month-on-month sales rises – built on its successful switch to a compact format -has come to an end.

Latest ABC figures for November show that The Independent dropped by 1.4 per cent last month on October.

Year-on-year the paper is still by far the best performing daily with an increase of more than 17 per cent on the same six-month period in 2003.

The Times can celebrate Christmas early as its switch to fully compact has led to a sales increase of nearly 4 per cent in November. It is also celebrating passing an important milestone in its sales battle with The Daily Telegraph. The Times’s full rate sales in November were 504,568 copies a day -beating the Telegraph’s full rate figure of 500,214 for the first time.

The Daily Telegraph also increased its sale last month by 1.4 per cent on October. Overall, the daily quality market is up by just over one per cent on the same six-month period last year.

The only other national newspaper sector to show a rise on 2003 was the middle market Sundays, up 1.7 per cent. The Mail on Sunday , boosted by its new football supplement, topped average sales of 2.5 million in November to reach 2,531,928, the best monthly sales figure since its launch in 1982.

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As well as the new Football on Sunday pull-out, the MoS has expanded its travel section and gave away three CDs last month.

In the popular sectors there was little to be cheerful about. The Daily Mirror is down 7.7 per cent on last year and The Sun by 4.8 per cent. The sector as a whole is down more than 5 per cent – equivalent to 346,213 copies a day -compared with 2003.

The “popular” Sundays market is also down more than 5 per cent on last year -a loss of 404,322 copies.

The quality Sundays fared better in November. There were month-on-month rises for The Business, The Observer , Sunday Herald, The Sunday Telegraph and The Sunday Times .