Putting online content behind a paywall appeared to have little impact on The Sun’s rate of print circulation decline last month.
The Sun began charging for online content on 1 August and the paper still lost sales at a rate of 9.8 per cent year on year dropping to 2,258,359. Sun sales were also down 1 per cent month on month compared with July, when The Sun was still giving its content away for free online.
Meanwhile, the Daily Mirror continued to out-perform its redtop rival with print sales up 0.56 per cent month on month and down 3.9 per cent year on year.
The only daily newspaper to increase sales year on year in August was The Independent’s cut-price sister title i, which was up 4.8 per cent year on year to 295,179 (with 64,625 free bulk copies).
The Independent and the Financial Times were the two worst performing titles in terms of print circulation. Excluding free bulk distribution, both the FT and The Independent now sell just over 50,000 copies a day in the UK.
Looking at the Sunday market, no titles managed to increase print sales year on year in August.
The Sunday Mirror also out-performed The Sun Sunday, both year on year and month on month.
National newspaper print circulations for August 2013 (source ABC)
Name of title: Circulation, change month on month, change year on year
Daily Mirror: 1,045,971, up 0.56 per cent, down 3.93 per cent
Daily Record: 252,575, up 1.14 per cent, down 8.58 per cent
Daily Star: 547,955, up 0.58 per cent, down 8.72 per cent
The Sun: 2,258,359, down 1.01 per cent, down 9.76 per cent
Daily Express: 530,631, down 0.45 per cent, down 3.61 per cent
Daily Mail: 1,802,083, up 1.13 per cent, down 5.85 per cent
The Daily Telegraph: 557,536, down 0.23 per cent, down 4.55 per cent
Financial Times: 236,281, down 3.47 per cent, down 15.65 per cent
The Guardian: 189,646, down 0.8 per cent, down 7.16 per cent
i: 295,179, down 3.26 per cent, up 4.85 per cent
The Independent: 68,696, down 4.95 per cent, down 16.02 per cent
The Times: 391,981, down 1.89 per cent, down 5.47 per cent
Sundays
Daily Star Sunday: 346,205, up 1.31 per cent, down 21.25 per cent
The Sun (Sunday): 1,916,570, down 0.56, down 10.17 per cent
Sunday Mail: 290,623, up 3.37 per cent, down 7.76 per cent
Sunday Mirror: 1,063,293, up 1.72 per cent, down 3.44 per cent
Sunday People: 425, 293, up 1.47 per cent, down 7.13 per cent
Sunday Express: 473,286, down 0.54, down 6.45 per cent
Sunday Post: 244,637, up 1.08 per cent, down 11.24 per cent
The Mail on Sunday: 1,675,474, up 1.05 per cent, down 7.51 per cent
Independent on Sunday: 110,157, down 3.60 per cent, down 10.95 per cent
The Observer: 216,839, down 1.58 per cent, down 11.94 per cent
The Sunday Telegraph: 435,323, down 0.32 per cent, down 6.13 per cent
The Sunday Times: 826,462, down 2.17 per cent, down 9.65 per cent
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