A decision to stop including bulk sales exactly a year ago has been distorting the year-on-year circulation decline for the Daily Telegraph every time ABC figures for UK national newsbrands are published each month, but December’s audit shows the true figure for the first time.
The broadsheet’s circulation was down eight per cent on the same month last year – when it first stopped counting multiple copy sales (aka bulk sales) – to 363,183 copies.
By comparison, only in November the title posted the biggest year-on-year circulation fall across the national newspaper industry at 22 per cent.
Scroll down for print and online ABC figures for December 2018
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Other titles have also stopped including bulk sales – which are the free-to-take copies typically found at airports, hotels and other venues that the publisher sells at a heavily reduced rate – in their circulation audits.
Figures for January, published next month, will be the first to compare the Mail titles year-on-year without bulk sales distorting figures.
UK national newspaper circulations for December 2018 (source: ABC):
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| Publication | Circulation (Dec 2018) | Year-on-year % change | Bulks |
| Metro FREE | 1,452,061 | -1% | |
| The Sun | 1,396,417 | -6% | 118,244 |
| Daily Mail | 1,223,410 | -12% | |
| The Sun on Sunday | 1,168,831 | -5% | 118,254 |
| The Mail on Sunday | 1,010,578 | -11% | |
| London Evening Standard FREE | 847,828 | -2% | |
| The Sunday Times | 710,665 | -3% | 75,520 |
| Daily Mirror | 514,926 | -12% | |
| Sunday Mirror | 426,992 | -13% | |
| The Times | 417,368 | -6% | 79,082 |
| The Daily Telegraph | 363,183 | -8% | |
| Daily Star | 332,868 | -15% | |
| Daily Express | 320,602 | -12% | |
| The Sunday Telegraph | 281,025 | -7% | |
| Sunday Express | 278,545 | -12% | |
| i | 236,339 | -8% | 52,493 |
| Daily Star – Sunday | 205,393 | -14% | |
| Financial Times | 180,915 | -6% | 30,623 |
| The Observer | 166,574 | -5% | |
| Sunday People | 163,546 | -14% | |
| The Guardian | 140,497 | -7% | |
| Sunday Mail | 122,653 | -15% | |
| Daily Record | 118,603 | -15% | |
| Sunday Post | 107,704 | -15% | 538 |
| City AM FREE | 85,740 | -5% |
Daily average unique browsers for news websites in December 2018 (source: ABC):
| Website | Daily avg unique browsers (Dec 2018) | Year-on-year % change |
| Mail Online | 12,033,973 | -3% |
| The Sun | 5,057,821 | 2% |
| Metro | 1,457,126 | -33% |
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