The closure of the News of the World on 10 July has had an explosive effect on the circulations of the surviving Sunday tabloids, audited sales figures for July revealed today.
The Daily Star Sunday has gained most from the closure of the News of the World, increasing its sale by 90 per cent year on year to 703,631 copies a week in July. Compared with June, it was up 130 per cent.
The figures from ABC show the Sunday Mirror up 54.7 per cent year on year to 1,786,454 sales a week; The People up 45.5 per cent to 806,544 and the Mail on Sunday up 15.4 per cent to 2,255,399.
The Sunday Express was also up, by 14.1 per cent to 648,806.
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The Mail on Sunday today trumpeted its new position as market leader on a Sunday – noting in a press statement that it now sells considerably more than the Sunday Times, Sunday Telegraph, Observer and Independent on Sunday combined.
The News of the World sold an average of 2.6 million copies a week in June, meaning that it accounted for around one in four newspapers sold on a Sunday.
Although individual titles have seen a boost, the net result of its demise has still been a blow to the Sunday newspaper market.
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In June, some 9,661,928 Sunday newspapers were sold. In July the total dropped to 8,966,964. August will be the first full month without the News of the World.
All the national dailies lost sales year on year. However, Guardian News and Media said that its national titles had a good month when the effect of dropping overseas sales is taken out of the equation. GNM said The Guardian was down 2.2 per cent year on year and The Observer down 1.8 per cent, not including lost international sales.
The Independent’s relatively strong headline performance, down 0.6 per cent year on year, was largely due to increased free bulk copies.
National newspaper circulation figures for July 2011 (source ABC)
Name of title: Average sale, percentage change year on year
Daily newspapers:
Daily Mirror: 1,185,729, -4.56
Daily Record: 305,226, -5.86
Daily Star: 706,757, -16.18
The Sun: 2,821,618, -7.26
Daily Express: 625,952, -5.71
Daily Mail: 2,050,132, -3.20
The Daily Telegraph: 634,113, -6.53
Financial Times: 336,590, -11.07
The Herald: 47,226, -9.50
The Guardian: 248,775, -10.27
i: 183,677
The Independent: 182,881, -0.59
The Scotsman: 38,987, -9.02
The Times: 441,205, -12.21
Racing Post: 55,322, -4.90
Sunday newspapers:
Daily Star Sunday: 703,631, 90.15
Sunday Mail: 411,755, 5.86
Sunday Mirror: 1,786,454, 54.66
The People: 806,544, 49.45
Sunday Express: 648,806, 14.08
Sunday Post: 321,834, -1.15
The Mail on Sunday: 2,255,399, 15.39
Independent on Sunday: 167,247, 7.51
The Observer: 288,842, -8.19
Scotland on Sunday: 48,797, -4.81
Sunday Herald: 32,508, -18.87
The Sunday Telegraph: 501,379, -0.76
The Sunday Times: 993,768, -6.96
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