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July 17, 2020

June UK national press ABCs: Daily Star sees biggest recovery from Covid-19 lockdown sales slump

By Charlotte Tobitt

The Daily Star saw the biggest recovery from the worst of the Covid-19 lockdown readership slump in June, according to the latest UK national newspaper circulation figures from ABC.

The tabloid grew its average daily circulation by 5% month-on-month to 223,727.

No other paid-for national newspaper grew its circulation by more than 3% in June, making it a slightly slower overall rate of month-on-month recovery than was seen in May.

The Evening Standard began to distribute more copies again as lockdown gradually eased, taking it back up by 8% to 489,154 – still almost half its distribution last year.

The Sunday Express and Financial Times saw their circulations drop slightly between May and June.

News UK’s Sun and Times titles now keep their figures private and so are not featured in the below table, but the Daily Mail revealed last month it had overtaken the Sun’s print sales for the first time in 42 years.

The Telegraph has withdrawn from ABC auditing to focus on its subscription numbers.

It said instead it now has 500,923 subscriptions, 296,783 in digital and 204,140 in print. It had 7,107 net new subscriptions in June.

National newsbrand circulations in June 2020 (ABC):

Publication ABC circulation for June 2020 ABC circulation for May 2020 and month-on-month % change in June ABC circulation for June 2019 and year-on-year % change in June 2020
Daily Mail 999,976 979,836 (2%) 1,175,653 (-15%)
Mail on Sunday 903,033 878,467 (3%) 986,385 (-8%)
Evening Standard (FREE) 489,154 454,056 (8%) 845,284 (-42%)
Daily Mirror 383,397 371,902 (3%) 488,829 (-22%)
Sunday Mirror 322,898 317,420 (2%) 403,350 (-20%)
Metro (FREE) 313,248 317,580 (1%) 1,424,232 (-78%)
Daily Express 246,884 241,383 (2%) 307,662 (-20%)
Daily Star 235,609 223727 (5%) 310246 (-24%)
Sunday Express 222,615 224,972 (-1%) 268,096 (-17%)
Daily Star Sunday 148,337 147,357 (1%) 184,914 (-20%)
The Observer 143,913 142,212 (1%) 159,568 (-10%)
i 140,154 137,235 (2%) 228,801 (-38%)
Sunday People 127,656 124,091 (3%) 151,523 (-16%)
The Guardian 111,286 110,538 (1%) 132,821 (-16%)
Sunday Mail 95,132 94,350 (1%) 113,712 (-16%)
Daily Record 90,104 88,867 (1%) 111,543 (-19%)
Financial Times 78,287 79,038 (-1%) 175.512 (-55%)
Sunday Post 74,279 74,609 (0%) 96422 (-23%)

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