New national newspaper circulation figures for January 2019 paint a more accurate picture of the Mail title’s print sales with bulks now stripped out.
ABC figures, out today, show the rate at which the circulations of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday are declining is in fact lower than figures have previously shown.
In December last year, the Daily Mail had a print circulation of 1.2m, down 12 per cent year-on-year, according to ABC figures. The Mail on Sunday had a circulation of 1m, down 11 per cent year-on-year.
But in January both titles posted a year-on-year circulation decline of 7 per cent.
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Scroll down for print and online ABC figures
Publisher DMG Media stopped including bulk sales – copies sold to venues, such as airport lounges, at a discounted rate – a year ago, with the change reflected in the ABC figures for the first time this month.
In December 2017, the Daily Mail counted 58,700 paid multiple copies – also known as bulk sales – in its circulation for the month of 1.39m. In January 2018, the bulk sales were gone and its circulation dropped to 1.34m.
The Mail on Sunday counted 53,500 bulk sales in December 2017 with a total circulation for the month of 1.14m. The next month, with bulk sales stripped out, its circulation fell to 1.1m
Year-on-year circulations fell across the national newspaper industry once again in January, according to ABC figures.
National newspaper circulations for January 2019 (ABC):
| Publication | ABC total – Jan 2019 | Year-on-year % change |
| Metro FREE | 1,426,050 | -3% |
| The Sun | 1,410,896 | -9% |
| Daily Mail | 1,246,568 | -7% |
| The Sun on Sunday | 1,178,687 | -8% |
| The Mail on Sunday | 1,032,870 | -7% |
| London Evening Standard FREE | 864,620 | -3% |
| The Sunday Times | 712,291 | -4% |
| Daily Mirror | 508,705 | -13% |
| Sunday Mirror | 431,419 | -15% |
| The Times | 417,298 | -5% |
| The Daily Telegraph | 360,345 | -6% |
| Daily Star | 329,971 | -16% |
| Daily Express | 321,146 | -12% |
| Sunday Express | 280,684 | -9% |
| The Sunday Telegraph | 278,558 | -7% |
| i | 233,868 | -9% |
| Daily Star – Sunday | 201,969 | -15% |
| Financial Times | 180,053 | -5% |
| The Observer | 163,694 | -7% |
| Sunday People | 159,836 | -18% |
| The Guardian | 141,460 | -7% |
| Sunday Mail | 123,755 | -12% |
| Daily Record | 119,328 | -11% |
| Sunday Post | 107,336 | -13% |
| City AM FREE | 85,982 | -5% |
Daily average unique browsers on national news websites in January 2019 (ABC):
| Website | Daily average unique browsers – Jan 2019 | Year-on-year % change |
| Mail Online | 13,173,163 | -4% |
| The Sun | 5,131,010 | -3% |
| Metro | 1,627,955 | -36% |
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