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January ABCs: Sun sales back above three million

By Press Gazette

The Sun boosted sales to well above the three million mark in December after dropping below it in for the first time since 1974 the last set of ABCs.

Sales were up 7.51 per cent compared with December to 3,209,766. It represented a year on year fall of 0.25 per cent making it the best performing red top. The paper is still price-cutting, selling for 20p in the London and the South East and in Scotland and it benefitted from its energy-savinf lightbulb giveaway promotion. Meanwhile rival redtop, the Daily Mirror slipped 6.69 per cent to 1,512,559.

Only one national daily put on sales year-on-year – the Financial Times – which was up 3.04 per cent year-on-year to 452,448 bouyed by its overseas sales.

The Evening Standard’s headline ABC was up 6.60 per cent year-on-year to 294,823 fuelled by a huge increase in bulk give-away copies. The Standard gave away 99,731 copies a day last month, compared with 59,304 a year before.

The Guardian has put the brakes on its ABC slide, dropping 1.48 per cent year-on-year to 378,394, after much sharper drops in previous months.

UK national daily newspaper sales in January:

Daily Mirror – 1,512,599 – down 6.0%

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Daily Record – 393,788 – down 5.93%

Daily Star – 722,969 – down 6.55%

Daily Sport – 101,653 – N/A

The Sun – 3,209,766 – down 0.25%

Daily Express – 752,699 – down 2.41%

The Daily Mail – 2,313,908 – down 1.70%

The Daily Telegraph – 890,086 – down 2.34%

Financial Times – 452,448 – 3.04%

The Herald – 67,528 – down 6.26

The Guardian – 378,394 – down 1.48%

The Independent – 250,641 – down 4.88%

The Scotsman – 55,766 – down 8.02%

The Times – 633,718 – down 5.42%

Evening Standard – 294,823 – 6.60%

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

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