September national press ABCs: Daily Mail print sale back over 1m for first time in six months

The Daily Mail’s circulation has topped 1m for the first time since Covid-19 hit the UK in March.

The latest ABC figures show most of the UK’s national newspapers saw marginal sales growth in September but continued year-on-year decline of between 10% and 20%.

The Daily Mail, which had dipped below 1m for the first time because of the effect of the Covid-19 lockdown on footfall, returned to average sales of 1,007,181.

The Mail on Sunday and Observer saw the smallest year-on-year decline (both 10%).

The Financial Times once again recorded the biggest month-on-month growth (10%) and the largest year-on-year decline (-38%).

The ABC figures published below do not include the Sun, Times or Telegraph titles, which have chosen to keep their circulations private.

The Telegraph however does publish its subscriber figures monthly and said in September it reached 524,412 in total, of which 323,917 (62%) were digital and 200,495 (38%) were print.

Its net new subscriptions were 12,914, almost double the figure from August.

National newsbrand circulations in September 2020 (ABC) with monthly and yearly changes:

Publication	ABC circulation for August 2020	Month-on-month % change	Year-on-year % change	Bulks
Daily Mail	1,007,181	1%	-14%
Mail on Sunday	871,121	0%	-10%
Metro (FREE)	650,279	29%	-54%
Evening Standard (FREE)	512,016	0%	-38%
Daily Mirror	394,250	1%	-17%
Sunday Mirror	321,267	1%	-17%
Daily Express	255,621	2%	-16%
Daily Star	241,439	2%	-19%
Sunday Express	223,759	1%	-15%
i	154,288	2%	-32%	8,216
The Observer	144,034	3%	-10%
Daily Star Sunday	143,937	2%	-19%
Sunday People	128,081	2%	-12%
The Guardian	113,261	3%	-13%
Financial Times	104,194	10%	-38%	23,007
Daily Record	91,374	0%	-17%
Sunday Mail	91,340	-1%	-16%
Sunday Post	74,305	1%	-21%