National newspaper ABCs: Daily Mail closes on Sun’s position as top-selling title

The Daily Mail is closing on rival the Sun’s position as the UK’s best-selling national newspaper, according to the latest monthly circulation figures.

The Mail closed the gap between the two papers by 30,355 copies in the last month, bringing it to an average circulation of 1.17m in September, ABC figures show.

The Sun sold an average of 1.24m copies but saw a 12 per cent year-on-year drop in September. It now has a lead of just 74,459 over the Daily Mail, but when the Sun’s bulk sales are removed that drops to 7,600.

The free Metro has the largest distribution of any UK newspaper at 1.42m. It climbed ahead of the Sun’s total circulation for the first time in March 2018.

The Observer saw the smallest circulation decline among paid-for national newspapers in September, falling by two per cent year-on-year to 159,780.

The biggest year-on-year declines were recorded by the Daily Star on Sunday (down 20 per cent to 176,949), and the Sunday People (down 18 per cent to 145,547), both owned by Reach.

National newspaper circulations for September 2019 (ABC):

Publication	Total average circ. Sept 2019	Year-on-year % change	Bulks
Metro FREE	1,415,071	-3%
The Sun	1,240,959	-12%	66,859
Daily Mail	1,166,500	-7%
The Sun on Sunday	1,052,465	-13%	66,861
The Mail on Sunday	969,894	-8%
London Evening Standard FREE	820,180	-4%
The Sunday Times	659,699	-8%	51,508
Daily Mirror	474,055	-13%
Sunday Mirror	386,004	-15%
The Times	372,812	-12%	54,133
The Daily Telegraph	310,586	-14%
Daily Express	303,243	-9%
Daily Star	296,473	-17%	645
Sunday Express	262,070	-9%
The Sunday Telegraph	244,351	-14%
i	225,496	-7%	49,226
Daily Star – Sunday	176,949	-20%
Financial Times	169,127	-7%	30,230
The Observer	159,780	-2%
Sunday People	145,547	-18%
The Guardian	130,496	-4%
Daily Record	109,908	-12%
Sunday Mail	108,742	-14%
Sunday Post	94,559	-15%	1,738
City AM FREE	82,331	-3%