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October 9, 2015

All UK red-top tabloids lost sales by 10 per cent or more year on year last month ahead of Star price cut

By Dominic Ponsford

Every UK national newspaper lost print sales in September with red-top tabloids falling the fastest.

Every red-top lost sales at a rate of 10 per cent or more year on year in September with Trinity Mirror's Sunday People falling fastest (down 17 per cent year on year to just over 300,000 copies a week).

Sales of the Daily Star were down 12.8 per cent year on year and sales of the Daily Star Sunday fell 14.9 per cent. Earlier this month publisher Northern and Shell halved the cover price of the Star titles, meaning the daily now sells for 20p on weekdays.

The Times was the best performing daily newspaper last month, with print sales dropping 1.8 per cent year on year. This figure does not include paid-for subscriptions and paid readers of The Times tablet edition.

In terms of paid-for sales The Observer was the best performing title on a Sunday, with sales down 3 per cent year on year.

UK national newspaper sales for September 2015 (source ABC)

Title Avg circ % change year on year Bulks
Dailies      
Daily Mirror 855,698 -10.0 45,000
Daily Record 186,439 -11.6 4,964
Daily Star 403,380 -12.8  
The Sun 1,800,233 -10.8 2,038
Daily Express 418,001 -10.7  
Daily Mail 1,609,003 -4.9 76,976
The Daily Telegraph 480,873 -4.9  
Financial Times 206,813 -4.7 21,804
The Guardian 166,977 -7.6  
i 277,498 -3.3 69,178
The Independent 58,002 -8.1 15,860
The Times 392,572 -1.8 20,591
Sundays      
Daily Star – Sunday 250,574 -14.9  
The Sun on Sunday 1,500,739 -9.7 2,158
Sunday Mail 204,372 -13.2 3,834
Sunday Mirror 810,404 -14.0
45,000
Sunday People 306,280 -17.2  
The Mail on Sunday 1,435,119 -5.1 72,023
Sunday Express 367,049 -11.4  
Independent on Sunday 100,158 -2.1 52,406
The Observer 194,142 -3.0  
The Sunday Telegraph 366,241 -7.4  
The Sunday Times 773,486 -4.8 11,139

 

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