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Mirror drops 10 per cent in face of cut price Sun and Star

By Dominic Ponsford

Alarm bells will be ringing at Trinity Mirror following the release of the ABC figures for November.

The Daily Mirror dropped 10 per cent year on year to 1,260,019 in as it felt the effects of being 25p more expensive than the 20p Daily Star, and Sun which is also on sale for 20p in much of the country.

The Star rose 15.3 per cent year on year to 823,476 and The Sun dropped 2.87 per cent to 2.958,502.

Trinity Mirror’s nationals division made an operating profit of £38.2m in 2008/2009 – so Trinity Mirror may now be looking at siphoning some of that cash into the Daily Mirror’s marketing budget to stem the sales losses at a paper.

Daily Mail and General Trust said in its annual results last month that the Mail titles were ditching CD and DVD give-aways in favour of “a sustained direct marketing campaign to recruit more long term loyal purchasers”.

If November’s figures are anything to do by, it seemed to be doing the trick.

The Daily Mail was the top performing mid-market title, aside from the Daily Star,dropping just 0.7 per cent year on year to 2,163,701.The Mail on Sunday also performed well in its market, dropping 4.16 per cent to 2,071,526.

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Like The Sun, the News of the World also dropped beloew three million in November, falling 7.3 per cent to 2,932,366.

National newspaper circulations for November 2009 (source ABC)

Popular/mid-market dailies:

Daily Mirror: 1,260,019, -10.01

Daily Record:323,051, -10.72

Daily Star: 823,476, 15.30

The Sun: 2,958,502, -2.87

Racing Post: 57,456, -6.85

Daily Express: 685,195, -8.91

Daily Mail: 2,148,571, -0.70

Popular/mid-market Sundays

Daily Star Sunday: 354,386, 2.15

News of the World: 2,923,355, -7.30

Sunday Mail: 392,174, -13.24

Sunday Mirror: 1,148,244, -8.52

The People: 533,782, -10.41

Sunday Express: 594,517, -11.33

Sunday Post: 340,285, -10.13

The Mail on Sunday: 2,071,526, -4.16

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