Times royal baby souvenir issue achieves biggest national press circulation boost

News UK titles claimed a circulation victory yesterday with both The Times and The Sun outperforming their nearest rivals.

According to estimates from News UK, The Times saw its circulation increase by 14.5 per cent from its base sale yesterday with its souvenir royal baby edition – which included a cover-wrap picture front. This would have lifted its circulation to more than 450,000.

According to The Guardian, its sales increased by 5 per cent, which was around the same percentage increase as The Daily Telegraph and The Independent.

It also reported that the Daily Mail’s circulation rose by 2.5 per cent and the Daily Express by 4 per cent.

The Sun, meanwhile, claimed a 5 per cent increase (according to News UK), and is thought to have outperformed its rivals, the Daily Mirror and Daily Star. The Sun changed the name on its masthead yesterday to The Son as a tribute to the royal birth.

Looking at digital figures for Monday supplied by Experian Hitwise, the Express website saw the biggest increase of any UK national newspaper website – up 40 per cent on the previous week. The Mirror, meanwhile, saw a 32 per cent increase and the Telegraph is believed to have had a 29 per cent rise.

The Guardian, which introduced a ‘Republican?’ button on to its website to let readers screen out Royal baby coverage, saw a 22 per cent increase in traffic on Monday according to Experian.

Elsewhere, the UK’s biggest newspaper website, Mail Online, saw a 12 per cent surge in traffic, the Evening Standard’s rose by 16 per cent and the Metro, Sun and Independent websites all saw traffic increases of 6 per cent.