ABCs: Olympics Games give nationals a boost in August

Half the UK’s national daily newspapers increased circulation month on month in August thanks to a sales boost from the London Olympics.

The best month on month performance was from the Racing Post (up 7.51 per cent to 50,354), followed by The Scotsman (up 6.5 per cent to 36,344) and The Times.

Earlier this month we reported on how national newspapers were estimated by News International to have put on sales of around two million during the Olympics fortnight, with the figures suggesting that nearly half of that uplift was split between The Times and The Sunday Times.

Despite the uplift in month-on-month sales, every title apart from i (up 47.43 per cent helped mainly by bulks) was down year on year.

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In the Sunday market 8 of the thirteen titles were up month on month. Scotland on Sunday stood out with a 4.56 per cent circulation increase.

All the Sunday titles were down year on year.

National daily newspaper print sales for August 2012 (source ABC)

Name of title : Average sale in August; percentage change month on month; percentage change year on year

National dailies

• Daily Mirror : 1,088,724 ; 0.62 ; -7.34
• Daily Record : 276,270 ; 0.27 ; -10.24
• Daily Star : 600,304 ; -3.73 ; -14.63
• The Sun : 2,502,691 ; -1.89 ; -10.48
• Daily Express : 550,502 ; -0.91 ; -12.59
• Daily Mail : 1,914,126 ; -0.37 ; -7.25
• The Daily Telegraph : 584,089 ; 0.49 ; -7.59
• Financial Times : 280,124 ; -3.66 ; -15.60
• The Guardian : 204,271 ; -2.43 ; -15.34
• i : 281,530 ; 0.50 ; 47.34
• The Independent : 81,804 ; -2.17 ; -54.67
• The Scotsman : 36,344 ; 6.50 ; -14.65
• The Times : 407,720 ; 0.90 ; -9.38
• Racing Post : 50,354 ; 7.51 ; -3.09

National Sundays

• Daily Star Sunday : 439,621 ; -3.68 ; -40.99
• The Sun (Sunday) : 2,133,616 ; -1.11 ; NA
• Sunday Mail : 315,077 ; 0.97 ; -24.97
• Sunday Mirror : 1,101,206 ; 2.16 ; -42.06
• The People : 457,964 ; -0.23 ; -48.66
• Sunday Express : 505,900 ; 0.48 ; -25.36
• Sunday Post : 275,608 ; -0.23 ; -16.41
• The Mail on Sunday : 1,811,463 ; 1.80 ; -13.67
• Independent on Sunday : 123,696 ; 4.16 ; -24.81
• The Observer : 246,245 ; 0.47 ; -10.23
• Scotland on Sunday : 43,382 ; 4.56 ; -22.35
• The Sunday Telegraph : 463,733 ; 1.59 ; -7.18
• The Sunday Times : 914,685 ; -0.52 ; -9.56

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