The Evening Standard's full colour redesign and resumption of targeted 20p price cuts saw its sales rise significantly in May.
Month-on-month,
the 8.29 per cent rise to 341,983 is impressive – although it couldn't
quite wipe out a year-on-year drop of 1.98 per cent. But that will
still be well ahead of the performance of all the other national papers
in the tough London market.
The Daily
Mirror's 8.23 per cent drop year-on-year to 1,634,006, is a
disappointing come down after the Prescott affair scoop of April. It
leaves the Mirror well behind the much better-promoted Sun which was
only down 2.52 per cent year-on-year to 3,149,029 in the difficult red
top market.
A deluge of promotions
helped the Daily Mail increase its sale by 1.33 per cent year-on-year
in May to 2,390,324 – they included several free classic British comedy
film DVDs, a week of learn Spanish CD and a free aerial photo give
away.
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The quality market, which has been
growing in recent months, shrunk by 0.94 per cent as a whole. Only The
Guardian and the FT managed year-on-year gains.
The Guardian was up 2.32 per cent year-on-year to 381,188 thanks to the diminishing Berliner relaunch effect.
The
FT managed a healthy 4.52 per cent year-on-year rise to 451,153 –
mainly due to increased sales in the US. While UK circulation dropped
from 135,260 a year ago to 133,676 – US edition sales increased from
117,849 to 144,064.
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Times editor Robert
Thomson will be pleased if he can pull off a similar trick with his
paper's US edition which launched in New York this month. The Times
slipped back 3.09 per cent year-on-year to 663,543 and tabloid rival
The Independent was slightly ahead dropping 2.21 per cent year-on-year
to 257,226.
New national daily betting
paper The Sportsman edged up 2.36 per cent month-on-month from a launch
figure of 21,819 in April to 22,333.
Actual paid-for sales are
still well short of its stated break-even circulation figure of 40,000.
Excluding bulks, The Sportsman dropped from 16,315 to 12,762.
The
80-odd journalists working at its Hammersmith headquarters will be
hoping that the World Cup can improve the paper's fortune's this
month.
In the tough Sunday red-top
market the slimly resourced People is finding the going particularly tough
– down 10.06 per cent year-on-year to 838,417.
The
Mail on Sunday was helped by a tie-in with the daily title's Spanish CD
series, an X-Men game cards give away and DVD give away of the Gene
Hackman film Under Suspicion to help a healthy 3.92 per cent
year-on-year sales rise to 2,341,605.
The Observer
slipped back well below the half million mark after its heavily
promoted Berliner relaunch of January. The 460,939 sales figure was
still up 4.33 per cent year-on-year.
The Independent on Sunday's 10.03 per cent year-on-year rise to 227,237 was helped by a free Spanish phrase book give away.
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