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March 16, 2017

Metro’s free circulation overtakes Daily Mail and is within 30,000 of The Sun on weekdays

By Dominic Ponsford

Free newspaper Metro has overtaken its sister title the Daily Mail to become the second highest circulation UK national newspaper.

The title, which is only available in certain areas around the UK during the week, had an average daily circulation of 1,476,115 in February according to ABC. The Daily Mail slipped behind it with an average sale of 1,454,129 (down 7 per cent year on year).

During the week, Metro is more than 200,000 copies ahead of the Daily Mail and less than 30,000 copies behind The Sun.

Metro today marked the 18th anniversary of its first edition.

Elsewhere, The Observer and The Times were the only paid-for national newspapers to increase sales year on year. They both grew marginally by 0.01 per cent (when bulks are taken out of the equation in the case of The Times).

Trinity Mirror’s two Sunday titles were the fastest fallers in February. The Sunday Mirror fell 16..4 per cent to 612,172 and the Sunday People fell 16 per cent to 237,394.

According to the National Readership Survey, Metro now has the highest monthly reach in print of any UK newspaper with an average readership of 10.4m.

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Product Feb-17 MoM% YoY% Multiple Sales
The Sun 1,591,997 -4.48 -8.6 97,835
Metro (free) 1,476,115 -0.06 9.54
Daily Mail 1,454,129 -3.79 -6.93 63,256
The Sun on Sunday 1,370,746 -0.35 -2.95 97,783
The Mail on Sunday 1,246,226 -0.93 -9.76 54,692
London Evening Standard (free) 897,000 1.1 -0.55
The Sunday Times 789,145 -0.4 3.02 83,882
Daily Mirror 700,879 -3.31 -11.49 34,000
Sunday Mirror 612,172 -2.72 -16.41 34,000
The Daily Telegraph 457,331 -3.16 -3.3 39,496
The Times 441,059 -2.26 9.51 80,492
Daily Star 440,048 -0.77 -6.94
Daily Express 389,028 -0.89 -5.84
The Sunday Telegraph 356,743 -0.74 -0.06 33,147
Sunday Express 334,181 -0.47 -8.97
i 265,815 -0.36 -1.41 56,608
Daily Star – Sunday 258,690 0.74 -13.37
Sunday People 237,394 -1.43 -15.97 7,000
Financial Times 184,279 -2.46 -5.75 20,981
The Observer 183,617 -1.15 0.01
Sunday Mail 166,195 -1.17 -11.87
The Guardian 154,544 -1.41 -4.1
Daily Record 153,579 -1.41 -12
Sunday Post 142,377 -0.55 -12.27 538
City AM (free) 90,743 0.47 -7.38

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