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The Telegraph has withdrawn from ABC auditing to focus on its subscription numbers.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